The Voice
by Scarlet song Cerulean trails
Summary: Mix of OoT & TP. The Hero of Time failed and the Kingdom of Hyrule has fallen. Now 17 years later a brave but cursed boy, and a knowledgeable yet timid girl, are called forth to try and finish what the Hero and Princess started. A voice calls out into the night and two small lights set forth to try to bring peace to a world bathed in blood and shadows.
1. 1 Wild Boy

**Hi, Everyone!**

 **This story was inspired by a weird dream that I had about a week ago and something about it just nagged at me until I finally decided to write it down, so here's part of it! I don't know how long it's going to be, but I do have a few things planned for it so at least a few more. My dream incorporated things from Celtic Woman's "The voice" so I will be using that to help me with inspiration, and if you've never heard it I highly recommend it!**

 **Enjoy and let me know what you think of it in a review!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...I can dream though, can't I? ;)**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a later point in time**

* * *

The high noon sun scorched down on the long line of men along the forest's edge, stifling their already difficult breaths as the dust from their work rose to mix with the heat. Sunburned, starved, and scraped all over from the rough blocks that had been cut at a quarry half a morning's fast march away; they breathed in the dust that was kicked up around them until the gritty taste of it reduced all liquid in their mouths to a dry paste.

Heavy rocks were moved slowly up the line till they had to be carried to their final resting position on the backs of other rocks, all held firmly in place by dark mortar that was baked hard from the shimmering waves in the air. The workers had been moved here from all over the area that had been known as Hyrule Field to construct this wall, just as their powerful King had ordered.

These village men whispered to each other as they toiled, pausing their conversations only when a Bulblin guard walked by; creaking in its leather armor while sporting a heavy wooden club or bow with deadly arrows and a short whip. The Bulblins were there to make sure that the wall was assembled by these Human and Hylian men as quickly as possible, with the lands of what had once been Hyrule on their side and the deep forest of Faron on the other.

No one was quite sure as to why King Ganondorf hated this forest at the edge of his kingdom, but ever since he had claimed the throne he had been striving to destroy it. He tried burning it, but as soon as one tree caught alight the fire would vanish without even blackening its green leaves. He ordered the trees to be cut down and their stumps pulled from the ground, but no axes or saws could cut even half way through their thick trunks and any progress made one day would be gone from the same trees the next. He attacked the forest with magical curses and spells, calling on dark sorcery from every corner of his vast land in numerous attempts to undo or overcome the magic of the forest; but to no avail.

Rumors spread of the forest being full of magical creatures: Fairies, the Deku Shrub tribe, even Kokiri, and strange spirits of the dead that worked together to oppose Ganondorf's reign. King Ganondorf decided that if he couldn't destroy the forest, he would seal it and its magic away from his lands by building a wall between them. To silence these rumors he ordered that the men of Hyrule Field build it while their families stayed at their villages under a provided guard, to protect them of course, and to insure their full cooperation.

Now men from late teens to old age all worked on the wall, fearing for their families and themselves as the Gerudo commander of the Bulblins made the situation quite clear to them the first day of the job.

"If you men can't get this wall up fast enough, then we're going to need more workers to stay on schedule and the best place to get this new supply of workers from would be the place that we got the first lot, your homes. So if you don't want to see your small children and little weak wives working on this as well, you'd better obey my orders and work harder than you think you possibly can to get this wall done."

They had been working on it for over a month so they were now working in the heat of a dying summer, and they still had a lot more work to do before the wall would be finished. The men whispered about the scant amount of rain that had fallen, how hard the workload was here for even the fittest of them, and speculations as to when the wall would be done. None of them said it aloud, but they all worried that the wall would not be done before harvest time and if it was not, would the King give them the time off that they would need to get all the crops in before the cold of winter? No one knew, and the fears of all these unknowns combined with the heat grinded away at both the young and old. They were little more than slaves, forced to work with no end in sight while being constantly reminded of what was on the line if they didn't submit to what their guards wanted.

An old man stumbled along in the heat, bent over double by the large rock that he carried and was blinking hard to try to clear the rising dust from his bleary eyes. He stumbled, falling to the ground heavily just as a lone Bulblin guard came walking up.

"Get up, work."

The Bulblin guard squealed, horribly mangling the Hylian language it attempted to speak as it marched over to the man. The old one nodded hastily and slowly started rising on his trembling limbs.

"Not fast enough."

The Bulblin squealed again, its red eyes glinting wickedly as it pulled out its whip. The thick whip flashed out across the old man's thin back, laying him out flat on the ground. A weak cry was all he could manage as Bulblin showed it was just getting started.

"Won't miss one, worthless, old man."

It said, red eyes filled with predatory hunger as the scent of the man's blood hit its nose. Work around the scene slowed as men working on the wall watched on in horror, wanting to help him, but fearing for themselves and their families safety should they try to intervene. Only one person moved.

The whip lashed out again, but instead of hitting the old man the end of it wrapped around a strong arm and was gripped tightly in the same hand before it could be pulled back. Challenging blue eyes clashed with furious red ones as the Bulblin glared at the young Hylian man who stood between him and his intended prey, this boy who dared to stop the thick heavy whip with just his green sleeve and arm. The Bulblin pulled on the whip handle, but the Hylian matched its strength with a pull of his own at the same time and didn't budge.

"Let go my whip, Boy."

The Hylian youth stared the Bulblin down silently as heat waves shimmered around and between them, his blue eyes unblinking in their intensity as they issued the Bulblin's final warning. The Bulblin blinked as beads of sweat started rolling down its face and reached for the club that it had stuck in its belt, the blue eyes followed its sudden movement.

"Let go my whip or-"

The boy pulled strongly on the whip end that he held, yanking the Bulblin off balance so that it stumbled forward towards his oncoming attack. The Bulblin squealed loudly in surprise at the unexpected pull and then squealed even louder in pain from a strong blow to its dominant arm from the boy. The Bulblin freed its club with its other hand and swung at the boy, who dodged it then delivered powerful hit to the Bulblin's rib-cage.

The Bulblin swung again and the boy managed to dodge, but the lack of food and water combined with the heat were taking their toll on him. The next swing hit his shoulder and sent him crashing into part of the in progress stone wall, with the men scrabbling to get out of the way. He turned quickly to face the Bulblin, breathing heavily and trying to ignore the small trickle of blood coming down from above his eye.

As the Bulblin readied itself to swing again the boy lunged forward and tackled it, bringing both crashing heavily to the ground. By now other guards had seen or heard of the fight and alarm horns were being blown as summoned guards moved to cease the grappling match. The struggling Bulblin saw another guard out of the corner of its eye and called out in its own raspy language, exposing its neck. The boy's head was down in a flash, teeth latching on and sinking into the throat of Bulblin.

The other Bulblin guards rushed over and had to forcefully pry him off the Bulblin, before trying to staunch the blood flow from the bite. The Bulblins pinned the boy to the ground and had just finished tying him up with their whips and some rope when a horse baring a Gerudo commander came up the path. The horse came to a stop before the clump of guards and the commander surveyed the scene before looking at the leader of the clump.

"What happened here?"

"He attacked guard."

"Who did?"

The Bulblins haled the Hylian youth upright and the leader grabbed a fist full of the boy's light brown hair to jerk his head back so that the commander could see his face. Her yellow eyes showed surprise that flicked to amusement, and then was replaced by annoyance.

"You again, Wild Boy? Don't you have something better to do than attack your guards, like finish building this wall, for example? Why did you attack that guard there?"

He looked back at her with a neutral expression on his blood and dirt smeared face and remained silent; the only thing of him that was moving was the rise and fall of his chest as he took in air that wasn't saturated with dust like what he had been trying to breath by the ground a few seconds ago.

"Answer me, boy!"

He stayed silent, blue eyes never changing their impassive stare.

"Why you impertinent little-"

She drew back her hand and hit him across the face to break free from that steady gaze.

"Commander."

The hesitant voice of an old man interrupted her, and she glared at the old Human being supported by two others.

"That guard attacked me to eat me, and this young man was only trying to stop it."

"What makes you think that the guard wanted to eat you?"

She snapped.

"He said "won't miss one, worthless, old man" and there were no other guards nearby, Commander."

Her eyes looked over to the attacked Bulblin who was still laying on the ground -glaring murderously at the Hylian boy held before her- and then back at the bleeding old man. She blinked thoughtfully then looked back at the Bulblin leader standing by the boy.

"Take that guard away and deal with him; we can't have him trying to eat the people he's supposed to be guarding. Get that old man cleaned up or we'll end up losing another worker, and chain this wild one to the posts back at camp. It looks like it will rain tonight, so that will be an excellent punishment for his actions."

She looked back at the boy and raised an eyebrow.

"Unless of course, you care to beg for my forgiveness?"

An unreadable expression appeared in his eyes and without breaking their staring match, he leaned forward and spat out some of the Bulblin's blood on the ground before her. Amusement reappeared in her eyes and she turned her horse back towards camp while the Bulblins dragged the boy after her.

 **-X-**

The Bulblins chained him between two thick wooden posts at the center of the large camp, and left him standing there in the blazing sun. The metal manacles felt like they were searing hot when they had first been put it on him, but now the rest of his body joined his wrists and ankles in the pain of burning and a quick glance at the sun showed that he was in for another few hours before it would set beneath the horizon. The few huge clouds in the sky promised rain, but rarely did any of them drift over the sun, so he was left to wait till night time for any relief.

Sweat trickled down through his hair making him have to shake his head to be rid of the itch of it, and nothing he did could cleanse his mouth of the Bulblin's foul tasting blood. He hadn't drank any water for two days because he had given it away to an old man the two days ago and a younger boy who had nearly fainted in the heat yesterday.

His head rang, his heart pounded dully in his ears and painfully against his breastbone as he trying to keep strain off his injured shoulder. Which was almost enough to block out the buzzing sounds, tickles, and bites of insects that landed on him, but not quite. The cool darkness of Faron woods seemed to beckon to him as sweat rolled down his face and body, like it was calling out to him to come back and after awhile he lowered his head so that he couldn't see it anymore.

 **-X-**

He lifted his head as he heard the workers coming back after sunset, watching with half closed eyes as they got their food ration for the evening and their water ration for the day. Many of them glanced his way, but he knew that they were too afraid to do anything to help because unlike him they had families to worry about should they do something.

Dark clouds rolled in from over the forest during their meal and a strong wind began buffeting the tents, causing everyone who could to retreat into them. He lowered his head, closing his eyes to the pushing wind and pinned his ears to his head as he felt the first light droplets of rain.

" _Link..."_

He gasped, eyes snapped open and his head shooting up as he wildly looked around for the speaker. There was no one around that he could see or hear, but he knew that he had heard his name.

" _Link..."_

His real name, not "Wild Boy", "Poor Child", or "Young Man". The men and monsters here didn't know his name because he had never spoke to them, so who was calling him?

" _Link..."_

The rain started falling harder, and he couldn't hear anyone no matter what direction he swiveled his ears in.

" _Listen my child, I am the voice of a Time gone by."_

He started slightly as he realised that the voice he was hearing was not coming from somewhere around him, but from somewhere within. He pinned his ears to the sides of his head again, the water that flicked off them was lost as the heavens opened up and forced him to lower his head slightly to stop the water from running into his nose.

" _Be not afraid, for I will not hurt you."_

He felt a pressure from the air in front of him, a warm and kind force and he lifted his head to look despite the rain. There was a strange shimmer to the space before him and he felt like he was standing in the presence of someone that he should be kneeling to.

" _Answer my call and I will set you free."_

He stared at the form for a few long seconds, then slowly lowered his head in reverence and submission. There was a spark of blue from his right wrist manacle and it fell away from him with a soft thunk against the post it was still connected to. He shook his arm to get the blood back in it and watched another spark of blue unlock his right foot.

The manacle thudded to the muddy ground, but as it did he thought he heard a loud squelch come from near the Commander's tent. He looked up through the shimmering air and saw the Commander staring open-mouthed at him as another blue spark unlocked his left foot.

"Blistering Winds, I knew I felt it!"

She raised a bow that he hadn't seen before and aimed at him.

"Die, Sorcerous Dog!"

She shot the arrow straight at him and given the short distance between them he knew that she wasn't going to miss. He closed his eyes and twisting behind the post that he was still chained to, but heard the ringing of metal striking metal and felt none the searing pain he expected. He heard a shriek of rage and opened his eyes to find that the arrow had not hit him, but that it had broken one of the links of the chain attaching him to the post instead.

" _Come follow me."_

He took off running to his left through the camp, he could hear the Commander rousing the guards and trying to alert the ones that were on sentry over the storm.

" _Stop!"_

He froze beside a tent just in time to see two Bulblins come running around the corner of a tent next to him before going straight past and towards the yelling.

" _Once you are free of these tents, face and enter the forest from there."_

He reached the edge of the camp and turned to face the woods, then frowned at what he saw. The forest was partially blocked by the wall which was taller then him now at even its lowest point, so he turned to run farther up the path to climb over somewhere lower.

" _Enter the forest straight from where you stand, Link."_

A shock went through him again as the voice said his name and he turned back to face the wall, if the voice wanted him to climb it here then here it would be. He dashed at the wall and hearing the startled squeals of two Bulblins to his right only made him move faster.

He charged the wall, planting a foot on its smooth and rain slicked surface to give him the extra bit of push off he needed to get his hands on the top. Muscles straining, he managed to get the whole of both of his arms on top and now was struggling to swing a leg up with his shoulder afire with pain. An arrow tinked against the wall next to him, just missing his side and he knew that it was only the first of many.

He snarled and with a brief burst of adrenalin, he hiked his leg up so that his foot was on the top as well. Using his leg and core, he pushed himself up and sideways until he rolled onto the top of the wall and could drop down on the other side. There was a flash of something dark and he felt a sharp pain from his right upper arm before he fell to the other side of the wall. He landed heavily and heard a few close sounding shouts from the other side before he felt that shimmering force next to him again.

" _Follow the golden light."_

There was a sparkle of gold from the edge of the black forest and after a few quick tests of his trembling legs to be sure that they were fine, he took off after that light. The forest floor was littered with holes, dips, rocks, and large branches, he half ran and half stumbled after the darting golden light as it led him deeper into the forest. He kept his arms in front of his face to protect it from the slap of wet leaves and branches as he ran, but water, leaves, and the bit of chain from the manacle still whisked close by his eyes.

He could hardly see anything but the golden light which was always far ahead of him, so when his foot sank into some animal's hole and he fell; he was up and running again in an instant to keep the light in sight. The longer he ran for the harder it was to breath and the more his legs trembled with exhaustion, and as soon as the light stopped he almost collapsed to the ground.

He staggered forward and it stayed there as if waiting for him. As he approached he saw that the light he had been following was a large golden wolf, but it wasn't like any wolf he had ever been around before because it seemed warm and kind like the voice had been. The wolf wasn't looking at him but was looking forward at something else, so he looked as well.

It was a bridge suspended over a deep ravine with a closed gate on the other end, he blinked and looked back at the wolf in puzzlement. The wolf started walking across the bridge, after a second he followed until they got to the other side and stood before the clearly locked gate. There was a click of a lock and the gate opened just enough for the two of them to pass and the wolf padded through.

He heard the gate close and re-lock itself behind them as the wolf led him to another locked gate a few paces away that opened for them in the same way. Beyond this gate was a large clearing enclosed with high rising natural banks, the clearing was mostly filled with a spring of water and even though it was still raining, not a single drop disturbed the pool's smooth surface.

He staggered to the pool's edge and with the wolf busy investigating something on one side of the clearing, he bent his head down and took a long drink from the clean and cool water. He would have fallen down to slept right there if he hadn't felt the wolf looking at him, he looked over and then forced himself up when the wolf looked at something, then back at him pointedly.

The wolf had found some kind of cave in the right entrance side bank that was just large enough for him to crawl into, after a look to the wolf he did enter it and was surprised to find that it was completely dry on the inside. That was all the he needed to know, he crawled in a bit deeper so the wolf would have enough space if it wanted to sleep in here as well before collapsing onto the dry sandy ground and into sleep.

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 **Review to let me know what you thought?**

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	2. 2 Timid Girl

**Hi, everyone!**

 **A big Thank You to ZeldaPotter29 for being this story's first reviewer!**

 **This is a bit of a slower chapter, but it's an important one! Link may act a bit differently in this, but things will really get rolling with the next chapter (which I'm already working on) so that fighter we saw in chapter one will be back with vengeance! Hopefully it won't be all long wait...If all goes according to plan...**

 **Enjoy!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...I'm just responsible for bringing them all together.**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a later point in time**

* * *

It was a slow awakening from the depths of sleep, his tongue felt thick and he desperately wanted water. His shoulder throbbed, his cheek and forehead ached, and there was a hot, dry, and flaky burn all over his body.

He opened his eyes carefully feeling that something wasn't quite right, but relaxed the instant he saw his front legs. That's what it was, today was one of his wolf days and he had changed in his sleep. He went to scratch behind one of his ears, noting that the manacle was still on his left wrist despite the transformation from boy to wolf. He bit the metallic thing in hopes of breaking it, but forgot about it as his ears swiveled around towards the cave entrance at the sound of voices.

"I think that's the last of them, are you sure that you want to stay here by yourself? Everything's wet from all the rain last night, and normally you can't wait to get back to the village."

"I know. But it feels so nice here after it rains, so calm, safe, and peaceful. I just want to stay for a few more minutes...do you want to stay with me?"

"It doesn't feel any different to me, Zel, and Sera will be mad if we're late with these herbs for the third day in a row."

"..I...understand, Ilia."

"Aww, now don't make that face, Zel! How about I take the herbs and stuff back and do whatever else she may want quickly, while you stay here? That way everyone's moderately happy."

"Stay here by m-mys-self?"

"Oh sure! Monsters never come this close to the village so you'll be perfectly fine. Plus the village is just down the path, you could just run there if anything does happen, which it won't."

"A-are you sure? I mean, I don't want you to do all the work yourself."

"I still owe you for when you covered for me two days ago, so don't worry about it! It's not like Sera can make me into her personally slave for the afternoon, because then where would that leave her husband?!"

He heard an explosion of giggles from the two girls, the one Ilia was laughing much harder than the other one. He belly crawled closer to the entrance, ears erect and eyes straining as he tried to learn what they were going to do now that their laughter was subsiding.

"I guess...thank you Ilia."

"Don't mention it, girl. See you in a bit."

He heard the faint crunch of sand, then leaves, and then the soft footfalls receding down the dirt path. His ears turned back to the girl still in the clearing and he was surprised to hear her sitting still, silent for several minutes with occasionally the sound something like a dry leaf brushing another.

Curious as to what she could be doing, he crawled all the way out and stood, taking a few limping steps closer. She was sitting by the far end of the pool right where he had taken a drink last night, bent forward slightly, and staring down at a green square thing resting open in her lap. He stared at her and she tucked some of her hair behind a long and slender Hylian ear, completely unaware of his presence.

She had long brown hair that flowed down her back and over her white short-sleeve capped shoulders. Her dress was white over her torso, but a warm and pale yellow down over her legs. There was also a purple length of cloth wrapped around her waist that was held there by a thick belt of blue. She moved part of the green thing's inners and the dry leaf-like sound happened, but he barely gave the movement more than a glance before looking back at her face.

He must have made a noise as he looked though, because her ear twitched and she turned her beautiful head to look straight at him. She gasped, hand flying to her mouth as she scooted away from him and stared. She didn't scream and she didn't try to get up and running away, which was odd because that's what people had always done before when they saw him as a wolf.

He cocked his head and regarded her silently, while she slowly studied him with frightened yet concerned blue eyes. Slowly the minutes ticked by, neither one of them moved until she lowered her hand to a shiny thing at the base of her throat and hesitantly spoke.

"H-hello, Wolf...M-may I call you th-that?"

He blinked at the name, cocking his head a bit in the other direction.

"You can't talk..can you?"

The thought of speaking reminded him of how thirsty he was, and he stiffly limped to the pool's edge while keeping an eye on her.

"You were imprisoned!"

She gasped softly as he lifted his left leg to take the first step, the manacle glinted in the sun, and her eyes saddened as she watched him move to the pool.

"And you're hurt."

She sat still, but her face showed a battle was raging inside her and he decided to give her time to think.

He bent his head and the water he drank was so cool that it soothed his insides. His front paws -which were in the water- didn't hurt anymore either, which was quite a blessing as his hands had been rubbed raw by climbing up the wall in the rain.

The girl suddenly nodded at the corner of his vision and he looked back at her. She looked down at the green thing in her lap and lay a pale blue strip of shiny cloth in the middle of its inners before folding the green thing in half. He stopped drinking when she looked at him and slowly stood up, green thing in one hand while the other fumbled in a pouch on her belt till she pulled something out.

"A-are you h-hungry, Wolf?"

His ears pricked up and he could feel the yearning depths of his stomach again.

"Y-y-you don't e-eat p-people, d-do you?"

He snorted at the ridiculousness of the idea and rolled his eyes. He may look like a wolf, but that didn't mean that he would hurt her. She had never had any contact with wolves before, he decided. Otherwise she would know that wolves very rarely, if ever, attack people. She must be confusing Wolves with Wolfos, how she could he didn't quite know because they were very different forest animals.

The girl must have realized that his reactions meant "no" because she started talking again and her trembling lessened.

"I have some of my lunch left if you want it."

She took two hesitant steps closer and put something down on the sand.

"There's not much left here, just half of my sandwich and a few grapes."

She looked at him again, avoiding his eyes though.

"This pool is called the Sacred Spring and it can help heal injuries if you bathe in it for awhile."

She stood up, still avoiding his eyes.

"I'm going home now, but you may stay here for a while longer...Only if you want to, of course. I wish I could...I...g-goodbye, Wolf."

Her face changed color as she struggled to speak then she ran from the spring's clearing, and he fought hard against the strong instinct to chase after her as she did. Instead he forced himself to merely watched her flee, ears drooping slightly.

He didn't know why she had run away, she hadn't seemed very scared and she must have liked him because she had given him food. He didn't for the life of him know what he had done to get her affection to the deep point of her giving him some of her food, they had just met each other and she didn't even know what he really was. His face kept heating up as his thoughts tumbled wildly this way and that as he tried deciphering what her actions could mean.

The smell of the sandwich reached his nose, interrupting his increasingly confusing line of thought, and he practically dove nose first onto the contents of what she had left for him. Bread, fish, some green leaves, tomato, a strange creamy stuff that distantly reminded him of a delicious white drink he had once had, and a raspberry like paste; all vanishing down his throat within a minute, with the grapes meeting a similar fate seconds later.

It was amazingly good, he had never tasted anything like it and that was enough to make him swish his tail a few times to release this burst of energy. If the food had been that good then she must have liked him a lot to even think of giving him something like that, he felt his face heat up again.

He sniffed at the white cloth that the sandwich and grapes had been on curiously, it smelled like food he had just ate and the girl who owned it. She smelled a bit like flowering plants, a purple one came to mind and after a few seconds he remembered its name: Lavender. He stared at the cloth for a few seconds, then shook his head to try and clear a strange sensation from it: a kind of lightness?

He turned from the object that had caused this strangeness and limped into the pool, wading out until he was floating gently on the surface. He pushed all thoughts from his mind and concentrated on thoroughly bathing himself in this cooling water until he felt that every hair was wet.

The swim in the waters of the Spring made him feel much better as the burning he had gotten from the sun was now only uncomfortable, not horribly painful under his fur. He finished shaking himself off then approached the white cloth, which still lay where she had left it on the sand.

He carefully picked it up with his mouth and limped back to the cave he had slept in, laying it down next to where he had woken earlier. She had given it to him with the food, so he would use it...For what he had no idea, but he knew he would find something. It was important. He left the cave to go for a quick hunt before it would completely dark and after digging a hole under the gate leading to the bridge; he slid through it and walked off into the forest.

 **-X-**

"Why did you bring some much food?"

"I'm quite hungry today, so I brought extra."

Ilia gave her a suspicious look from where she sat a pace or two away on the little island on the other side of the village's figure eight shaped lake. Feeling the urge to convince her friend, she quickly took a large strawberry out of the small food basket and ate the entire thing in one bite.

"I don't believe you, you're not eating like a starving person would be. You know, cramming it in and wolfing it down, you're not doing that, Zel."

"I am too hungry, Ilia. I just know that the food is not going anywhere and that means I can take time to eat it."

"You know, you're not very good at lying, Zel."

"Tha-that's because I d-don't."

"Really? Then what is that extra food really for?"

"I-I don't really know what you mean, Ilia. Perhaps-"

She was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a brown hawk, which Ilia stood to receive. It landed on her arm and she took a note off its leg, then read it.

"Darn! I have to go, Zel. Dad needs me to go check on one of the goats, says it's acting weird. So you finish your lunch without me and I'll see you at dinner."

"Alright, Ilia, I hope things go well."

"Don't think that you've gotten out of this though, I will be asking you about this later."

Ilia jumped into the water and slowly swam off towards the village, leaving her all alone with the hawk. She picked up the basket and after lots of awkward shifting and staggering under the hawk's weight, she sent it off towards the village with the food basket. She carefully tied her skirt and sleeves up and back, then carefully slid into the water and started the swim to behind Sera's shop.

The water wasn't cold and the sun was covered by a cloud, making the swim a very pleasant one. She pulled herself out of the water at the back of the shop and wrung out her clothes as best she could before hurrying around to where the hawk had dropped her food basket.

"Off swimming again, were you Zelda?"

Uli said from where she stood next to the hawk grass and food basket at the other side of Sera's by the small stream that fed into the lake.

"Yes."

She replied with a smile.

"Ilia and I were having lunch out there together, but then she had to go tend to one of the goats so I decided to come back."

"Do you really think it wise to go swimming in all your clothes? Aren't they a bit heavy?"

Zelda looked down at herself.

"I suppose that it may seem a bit foolish, but I'm use to their weight. And I feel better being fully clothed when I get out of the water, then I would if I was only wearing my underthings like Ilia does."

"I see. Your clothes would dry out faster if you didn't wear a dress though."

"I know, but it doesn't take that long for my clothes to dry out and I don't mind damp things in the meantime."

Zelda bent to pick up the basket and Uli shifted slightly while pressing her hands into the small of her back.

"What do you plan on doing with the rest of your afternoon, Zelda?"

She straightened up with the basket while still smiling.

"I'm going to go check on the herb garden by the spring, but then I'm free. Do you want my help with something?"

"I would love your help with some clothes washing if you can spare the time, Dear."

"Certainly! I will come by when I'm done at the herb garden."

"I'll see you then, Zelda, thank you."

"See you then."

Zelda said as she turned and walked off towards the spring.

Her steps slowed as she exited the village and they slowed even more as she walked the path to the spring. She shifted the basket nervously from one hand to the other until she settled on holding it in both hands while gripping the handle tightly. She didn't even know if he would be there, but she hadn't told anyone about Wolf's appearance...and she didn't know why.

She paused, then stuck her head around the gate post to the spring to see if he was there and spotted him lying in the shallows of the pool, staring at her. He lifted his head and his tail wagged gently in the water, causing her to smile back at his surprised yet happy blue eyes.

"Hi, Wolf."

She said as she shyly entered the clearing and slowly walked over to the herb garden to sit next to it. He stood, shook himself off, then walked towards her.

"You look better than you did yesterday and you're limping less, so that spring water must be helping you a lot for you to be healing this quickly."

He looked bigger than she remembered and she sat down quickly and nervously, eyes slowly getting wider as he got closer. He stopped a few paces away and cocked his head at her, blue eyes confused.

"A-are you hungry, W-wolf?"

She pulled her eyes from his and looked down into her basket.

"I have a whole sandwich for you this time and some of the last Strawberries of the season, so hopefully you like them."

She glanced around for her handkerchief that she had left here the other day, but didn't see it and then remembered that they had some wind early this morning. Thinking it was gone with the wind, she found a flat rock and placed the sandwich and Strawberries on that for him.

He looked at her strangely for a few seconds, but then started devouring the sandwich and she started gently checking on the herbs.

Deciding that they needed a bit more water, she picked up a shallow bowl and walked to the pool to get some, all the while feeling his eyes on her. She walked back and started watering them, only to have a large wolf muzzle appear over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

She jumped, causing him to jump back a bit, but she smiled shakily at him.

"It-it's alright, you can come look. I just-I was a bit frightened by you suddenly being right there, but it's alright now; you can come look."

He slowly padded back over to her and stuck his huge head over her shoulder to look down at the herbs that she had been tending to. In a slightly trembling voice she started explaining what she was doing and why. After a few minutes she became somewhat used to the head in her peripheral vision and begin telling him all about the little garden.

He just stood there listening, eyes following her hands as they worked and at least one ear constantly turned towards her voice. She forgot about everything else as she sat there, telling about and tending to the garden, until she had done everything she could and looked up at the sun.

She gasped and stood up, brushing off her skirt as she did.

"I'm sorry, Wolf, but I have to go now. I promised that I would help someone do their laundry and I've taken much longer than I thought."

She grabbed her basket then paused and looked at him.

"I'll be back tomorrow, will I see you again?"

He looked back at her steadily until she felt a smile forming on her face, her eyes widened and then she looked away.

"I'll see you then."

* * *

 **A big Thank You to everyone who reviewed and read the last chapter!**

ZeldaPotter29 : ***blushing** **furiously** *** Th-thank you! And thank you very much for pointing out the "so" thing to me, I went back in there and tried fixing it a bit. I love constructive criticism as it helps me get better at doing this writing thing that I love, _so_ feel free to keep on pointing out the little things to me! ;)**

FCL : ***squeals of happiness* Buddy! Yeah, I always thought that Ganondorf being King would really suck and my dream vividly displayed that it was! *sobbing for the people of Hyrule* Link was a bad a$$ in my dream, so I tried to make him one here too and hopefully he'll stay one in the following chapters. Knowledge is power, isn't it? Mahahaha!**

Leave a review and I'll thank you too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	3. 3 Two Triangles

**Hi, Everyone!**

 **So this chapter took a bit longer than I had planned because it's been a mad house at home for most of the week! I hope that you all like it, I try writing cute stuff sometimes and I always feel that it never comes out like I planned, but maybe you like it? There's a fight in this chapter that may be a bit scary/bloody, just to let you all know. So now that you've been warned about that, read on and let me know what you think of it in a review!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...and as such I am understandable envious of those that do.**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a different point in time**

* * *

"I don't understand you, Zel! You used to be afraid to go to the spring alone, but now you're going there everyday and staying there by yourself for long periods of time! Why are you suddenly so confident in going and sitting around there alone?!"

Ilia leaned closer to the nervous Zelda across the stream from her. Both girls were washing their clothes and while Ilia had been silent about the subject when they were around others, she ruthlessly brought it up when they had one-on-one time...like now.

"What's changed?!"

Zelda leaned away slightly and ducked her head so that Ilia couldn't see her eyes. She knew that Ilia was only asking out of concern for her wellbeing, but she wished that she wasn't so blunt about it in her questioning.

"I guess that I've felt safer there as of late."

"Why?"

"I-I d-don't know."

Goddesses above, she hated lying. Not only because she was a terrible liar that people often saw through, but because she knew that it was wrong to try and willingly deceive others. Normally she wouldn't even try lying to Ilia, but she knew that if she told her about Wolf it would ruin everything.

"P-perhaps you were r-right, there's nothing to fear while at the spring."

She glanced up at Ilia who was pursing her lips with a dubious look, collecting her thoughts for another bout of questioning. Then Zelda spotted Colin and Rusl walking by off to Ilia's left, she sat up and waved an arm to them.

"Colin, can you come here!? I need to-"

Something warm and heavy slammed into her back, pushing her off balance and into the shallow running water of the stream. She came up spluttering and a strong hand helped her out as she tried brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes. Talo's dog barking excitedly next to her and she figured that the dog had bumped her, though Ilia's giggles at this fall of hers made it hard to think that she hadn't seen it coming, the tips of her ears warmed in embarrassment.

"Are you alright, Zelda?"

Colin's soft voice asked as she could now see that the hand belonged to his father.

"Yes, I'm quite fine. Just a bit wet, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go fishing later?"

"I thought you didn't like fishing."

Ilia said as her giggles subsided.

"Well, it is truly not my favorite. However, I haven't done anything fun with Colin recently and I do like fishing with him."

"I think that you need to dry yourself off a bit first."

Rusl said, looking at her and then surveying the washing next to her.

"I can see that you were going for maximum efficiency in your chores Zelda, but it's perhaps not the best idea to try and wash the clothes you're wearing."

"It's not the best idea, I agree."

Zelda said while looking ruefully down at her dripping dress.

"I don't mind waiting for you to change, Zelda...if you want still want to go fishing."

She looked up at Colin and smiled brightly.

"Of course I do! Let me get changed and hang all these clothes up to dry, then we can."

Zelda picked up her clothes and was leaving when she heard Colin ask his father.

"How much are dogs supposed to eat everyday?"

"Well, it's a bit different than wild animals like we were talking about before. Talo's family feeds him their leftovers and perhaps a bit more depending on his behaviour, but they always feed him enough so don't worry."

Something occurred to Zelda and she turned back towards Rusl and Colin.

"Rusl, how much are wolves supposed to eat everyday?"

Rusl turned his head and blinked at her in surprise.

"Well they don't need to eat everyday, but around 3kg (7 pounds) to be healthy I believe. Why do you ask?"

"I-I was just c-curious."

Zelda said, whipping back around towards the house to hide her horrified expression from the others. She had only been bringing him a single sandwich a day and that wasn't nearly enough!

 **-X-**

She hadn't turned up at their regular meeting time of early noon and he was now waiting for her in the shelter of the woods near the entrance gate. Today, he decided, was the day that he was going to show her that he was a Hylian, not a wolf like she thought. He didn't know how she would react, but he knew that it was not right to keep secrets from one who had so selflessly tried to help him. She deserved to know who she had helped and he would try to find a way to repay her.

He glanced up at the rosy sky of early sunset and took a slow inhale of the tastes of the forest around him, enjoying the scents of decaying leaves, old trees, young green plants, and the soft clarity lacing the spring.

His ears twitched as he heard someone enter the spring and he lowered his blue eyes to them. He tensed, eyes narrowing as he carefully watched the blond swordsman that was now in silent, standing prayer by the spring.

He had seen this man before many times during the past few days and guessed that this warrior was the village leader because he spent so much time patrolling the areas around it. This must be part of this man's -and by extension- the village's territory that he was trespassing in, and he tried to respect that by not hunting around here. He only came to see Zel and use the spring, but it was still a deliberate crossing into another's territory and as such he had always been careful to cover his tracks.

He warily watched the man finish his prayer and walk out of the spring's clearing. He could hear him check the lock on the gate leading to the bridge, before walking back towards his village. Link gradually relaxed again after the footfalls of the man had receded out of his hearing and he looked back down at the white cloth in his hand. He looked back up at the now orange-pink sky, straining his Hylian nose and ears for a trace of her.

 **-X-**

It had been very hard to explain the amount of fish that she had kept from her fishing with Colin, and it had been even harder to pack the fully cooked fish into a basket to take with her to the spring with no one seeing. The only ones who knew how many she really had was Colin and Uli and she thought that they wouldn't say anything to anyone other than perhaps Rusl, which was fine as long as they didn't say anything to Ilia or Mayor Bo.

She placed the small picnic basket into a larger clothes one and walked outside on the pretense of collecting her hopefully dry clothes.

She gasped when she saw the sunset across the sky, horrified at how late it was. Walking calmly over to her hanging clothes was the last thing she wanted to do now, but she didn't want to attract attention so she forced herself to. She sedately set the large basket down, then started taking down and folding her clothes until she couldn't hear anyone nearby.

She grabbed the picket basket out and ran down the path leading towards the spring, praying that he would still be there despite her being hours later than she normally was. She flew around the corner at the very outskirts of the village and nearly slammed into Rusl.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"Well, you look like you're going somewhere in a hurry!"

"I forgot to check on the herbs today and it will be dark soon so I need to look before all the light is gone!"

"I see. Well, there were no monsters down that way when I was closing and checking the gates. Do you want me to go with you?"

"N-no, I'll be fine."

"You better hurry if you want to be able to see anything on your way back then, goodnight Zelda."

He started walking again and she continued down the path, calling a goodnight over her shoulder.

It didn't take her long to get within sight of the spring's gate and she hurriedly pushed in open as she reached it. She bent forward slightly, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath enough to call out to him. She heard a rustling sound, but no familiar clink of metal striking metal and her spine stiffened.

She whirled around to see a young Hylian man standing at the edge of the woods only a few paces from her. Her hand came up to over her hammering heart as she surveyed him and he cocked his head as he watched her face with slightly closed blue eyes.

"W-w-wol-lf-f?"

His eyes widened and he stared at her for a few seconds before an impressed look entered his eyes. He took two steps closer and held out something white with his left hand. She hesitantly took a step closer to take it, seeing as she did that he had his palm bandaged and that he had tied the chain bit to right above the manacle with a bit of rope.

He pulled his hand back quickly as soon as she had took the white thing, preventing her a good look at it; she looked at him quizzically before looking down at the white thing instead. Her eyes widened and her eyes flashed back up to his.

"You found my handkerchief! I thought that it had been lost because of the wind we had that night, thank you for returning it, Wolf. I wasn-"

"Link."

He interrupted and her eyes that had drifted back down the cloth in her hand flashed up again.

"Link?"

He nodded once and she smiled at him.

"I don't remember if I ever told you my name, Link. I'm Zelda."

"Zelda."

He repeated softly with a slight smile on his face, blue eyes staring gently into her own. They stood there looking at each other, until a small thump startled them both. Zelda looked down sheepishly at the picnic basket that she had dropped then looked back at his face to find him looking at it with great interest.

"I-I brought some cooked fish for you."

She bent to pick it up and a sudden idea hit her, causing her straightened up with the basket quickly.

"You're not a wolf anymore..so...if you want...I could t-take you back to the village with me."

She glanced up at his face to find that he was just staring at her with a neutral expression and half-closed eyes. She looked down again, closing her eyes and taking a shaky breath as she tried to summon the courage needed to continue with what she was saying.

"Y-you wouldn't have to live out here by y-yourself anymore and it's much safer in the village at n-night because you'd be sleeping in a house with a locked door between you and the d-darkness. Then you don't have to worry about anything sneaking up on yo-"

She felt a slight tingling sensation on the tip of her nose and opened her eyes to find that he had bent down to see her face, cocking his head to one side so that he was looking up into her lowered face. He was so close that she could feel his breath on the tip of her nose, and he was listening to what she was saying with an interested expression in his eyes.

A blush exploded on her face and she jerked away from him, seeing a bit of surprise cross his face. He looked like he was searching her face for something and after a few seconds he stood back up to his full height.

"Th-th-think a-ab-out it, t-t-tell m-me to-tomor-rrow."

She dropped the basket again and hurried around him, seeing his confused eyes as she did. Those eyes haunted her as she raced home down the dark path and he stood perplexed in the same spot for a long time at the strange look that he had seen in hers.

 **-X-**

"Come on!"

"Ilia, please! I said that I don't want to go!"

Ilia was dragging she through the village and despite a sympathetic look from Mayor Bo, no one was doing anything to stop her. Uli had even given her a look like, 'try and relax Dear, you'll have a good time'.

"You've been going to the spring herb garden everyday and I haven't been able to go with you for almost a week! Surely you wouldn't mind going with me now?"

"B-but, I have chores to do!"

"They can wait, it's not like they're going anywhere."

She couldn't tell Ilia that the reason she didn't want to go was because Link might be there, and she didn't know what would happen.

She had successfully managed to talk herself out of going there almost all day, telling herself that she would go at around sunset and see what his decision was. You know, to give him as much time as he might need to think about it and that was the _sole_ reason she had been avoiding going there all day. She was doing him a courtesy...right?

She tried planting her feet as to halt their movement, but Ilia was stronger and just kept plowing along.

"S-stop Ilia! I said I don't want to go!"

She grabbed a passing wooden signpost and gripped onto it for dear life as Ilia pulled on her other arm.

"What is with you today, Zel?! Nothing bad will happen while I'm there and if we don't go soon it will start to get dark out!"

"B-but I said-"

" _Zelda..."_

She gasped and Ilia instantly stopped pulling her.

"What, did I hurt you Zel? I'm sorry if I-"

" _It is time now, go to the Spirit's Spring."_

 **-X-**

He didn't quite know why she had said to think about it, he had known what he wanted as soon as she had offered. He wanted to be with her, no one had ever seen through his wolf form before and her reactions had been very different than anyone else's had ever been. He looked down at the small plant in his hands and cupped them around it a bit closer. He had seen how much she liked that herb 'gar-den' of hers and while he knew that she had a plant like this one, she only had one.

He looked back up at the forest around him and saw the golden wolf sitting several paces ahead of him. It stood the instant he saw it and turning, ran off into the forest after flashing him a piercing look with its single red eye.

He raced after it, leaping over fallen logs, low bushes and plants, ducking beneath branches and leaves. Now that he was basically recovered, he slowly began closing the gap between himself and the streak of gold bounding before him. Just as he thought that he was getting close the wolf came to a sudden stop at the top of a steep slope, causing Link to nearly drop the plant as he stopped before crashing into the tail end of the great wolf.

He looked past to where it was staring and gave loud growl when he saw the troop of Bulblins moving along the path below them. There were two walking in the lead, with two giant saddled boars carrying two Bulblins each, and two Bulblins bringing up the rear. He was so angered by their appearance in this beautiful forest that it took a a few seconds to realize that they were on the path to the village, and that the bridge would be in sight in a minute.

His eyes widened and he turned his head to the golden wolf. It was looking back at him, silently telling him that he knew what he had to do before it looked down at the small fragile plant in his hands.

Link set the plant down carefully, then stared down at the Bulblins intensely. The first two were armed with clubs, the two controlling the boars had only whips and rope, the two riding behind them had bows, and the two bringing up the rear had knives and whips. With an attack plan forming in his mind and knowing that he didn't have any more time, he looked at the golden wolf only to see that it was no longer there.

He huffed softly then changed into his wolf form and started running down the slope, carefully at first so that they wouldn't hear him coming until he was almost on them. He bounded over short plants and rocks and ducked low under taller things, eyes fixed on the two riders of the closest boar. Just as he got close enough for them to hear all the twig and leaves sounds coming from under his paws a loud lone wolf's howl came from the opposite direction, causing them all to look that way.

Link exploded out of the undergrowth by the side of the path in an arching leap up to the riders of the boar on the right. He hit them with his extended front legs and knocked them out of their saddle, bringing them both to the ground in-between the boars and beneath him. As soon as they landed, he was springing to the riders of the next boar, knocking them down with his front legs so that they were pinned beneath him.

He snapped down on the throat of the second boar's controller, his wolf teeth cutting down to the bone easily. He bit down on the Bulblin archer next, hearing the boars squalling in panic at the sudden attack and loss of their handlers. They thundered off in random directions, leaving him alone with the six other Bulblins.

He dropped the limp Bulblin archer from his mouth and turned to face the others, teeth bared and dripping with foul colored Bulblin blood.

The other Bulblin boar controller had been trampled by one of the boars in its flight and he couldn't see the other archer as the two Bulblins with clubs closed in on him.

They swung at him and he dodged before leaping onto one of them while his club was out wide. He bit onto the Bulblin's shoulder just short of its neck and crunched down until he felt something snap beneath his teeth. He felt the Bulblin's squeal welling up from its chest and transferred his bite fully to the neck, cutting off the cry before it could deafen him.

Pain exploded in his side and he was bodily knocked off the Bulblin by the another's club. He hit the ground hard enough to partially knock the breath from him, not that he could have breathed anyway with the state of his side. A whip cracked out and scored him across the fur of his neck, just missing his face and galvanizing him back onto his legs.

The Bulblin with the club swung down at him again and he leaped aside, an idea on how to get to the whip users forming as he did. He stayed engaged with the club welding Bulblin, dodging this way and that despite his throbbing side to get closer to the whip users without them seeing it coming.

He suddenly ducked under the one Bulblin's club and lunged at the closest whip user, snagging his arm as he turned to flee. Link changed back into a Hylian and his wolf mouth released the now shattered lower Bulblin arm to quickly be replaced by a firm grip of his hand to hold the Bulblin there, the other hand delivering a smashing Extended-Knuckle Fist strike to its face.

He saw the club come swinging in out of the corner of his eye and tried twisting out of its way only to get clipped on the shoulder and spun by its force. He let it carry him around while he continually spotted his next target before planting a foot and lashed out at the last second with a Sword Hand chop straight into the club Bulblin's breastbone. It fell with a shrill cry of pain, but as it did Link saw a sharp movement out of the corner of his eye and then felt a lancing pain in his upper right arm.

He snarled at the now located archer and leapt sideways to avoid the snap of a whiplash to the head.

He landed and turned to face both Bulblins with fingers of his left hand gripping his injured right arm, his neck stinging for the whiplash earlier, side throbbing so it hurt to breath even the shallowest of breaths, and his shoulder aching from the blow it had taken from the club. He gritted his teeth and desperately started thinking of a new plan.

He couldn't leave because then these two might still see the village and report its whereabouts, or on their way to the village they might bump into Zelda or one of the other villagers and kill them.

He wouldn't let that happen, he had to stay and he had to win this fight. His blue eyes narrowed and he growled at the two Bulblins, never seeing that visible through the bandages over his left hand was a faint golden light.

 **-X-**

Zelda hurried down the path towards the spring with Ilia trailing behind her, uncharacteristically silent. Ordinarily Zelda would have been concerned with this quiet behavior from her loud friend, but right now she didn't even notice. All she could think about was what the Voice had told her and she prayed that it was wrong.

The girls had just about reached the spring's gate when they heard a squealing cry come from beyond the outer gate and bridge, causing them both to stop dead in their tracks.

"What was that?"

Ilia said as both stared at the bridge beyond the locked gate. Zelda began to get a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach as she glanced around inside the spring's clearing and she didn't see any sign of Link.

"Ilia, go get Rusl and your father."

She said in a soft yet carrying voice as she drifted closer to the outer gate.

"Something is happening out there and we should know what it is."

"S-sure, Zel. I'll get them as fast as I can, stay right here while I'm gone."

Zelda nodded faintly even though she knew that Ilia was already gone. She wandered up to the gate and turned all her Hylian scenes towards trying to discern what was happening. Never seeing that the triangular birthmark on her hand was glowing a faint gold.

Ilia returned with the two men, Rusl armed with his usual sword and the Mayor armed with a thick, well-made mace. Rusl moved forward to unlock the gate and Zelda stepped back as he did, he turned and handed Ilia the key.

"Lock it after us and don't unlock it unless I tell you to, understand?"

She nodded while taking it and the two men cautiously started crossing the bridge. A sudden cry of pain that wasn't anything like the squealing one from before split the air and Zelda gasped in horror.

"..Zel?"

Ilia started asking in confusion just as Zelda gave a strangled cry and dashed off across the bridge, zipping by the two very startled men before they could even think about stopping her.

 **-X-**

He had gotten the other archer, but this knife wielding Bulblin was determined to take him down or die trying. He had already taken care of its whip, but had gotten struck twice while doing it: once lightly to the his left cheek and once to his left upper arm.

Now he was huffing raggedly as he dodged slash after quick slash from the Bulblin who seemed rather convinced that the best way to kill him was to keep attacking him right in his face, and normally this Bulblin would have paid for this idea by now; but the long battle had just about taken all the energy he had. His wolf form was no good in a tight knife fight like this, and he was having so much trouble keeping one step ahead of this Bulblin that stopping to transform seemed like it could prove fatal.

He saw a brief opening to hit the Bulblin as it's arm whisked by and it opened itself up, he seized the chance by swiftly spinning in to deliver a powerful elbow strike to its head. His elbow made contact with a solid thud sound, but a split second before it hit he felt a splitting, white-hot pain across his abdomen. The pain was so excruciating that he cried out and stumbled back from the already falling Bulblin.

His shaking legs gave out on him and he fell to the ground, jaring every hurt as he did. He could feel his whole body shaking and he numbly tried stopping up the bleeding across his stomach with his hands, his whole face screwing up at the flash of searing pain that accompanied the attempt.

 **-X-**

Zelda ran around the first bend in the path after the bridge and stopped, both hands flying to her mouth as she stared at the carnage before her. She heard the others come up behind her, but she couldn't say a word.

"Golden Goddesses!"

Mayor Bo said just as Rusl's and Zelda's eyes landed on the slightly moving young man lying among the Bulblin bodies. Zelda gasped and tried to run forward, but Rusl grabbed her arm.

"Wait, Zelda. Let me go first."

"But you don't-"

"Bo, hold her please."

Mayor Bo took a hold of her arm and Rusl started walking over to the young man. When Rusl got within a few paces of him, the boy turned his head with a snarl that matched that of any wounded animal. Rusl stopped, then brought up both hands placatingly.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to help."

The boy growled at him while trying to move only to yelp in pain and fall back, Zelda started struggling to free herself from the Mayor's grasp.

"Rusl, please! I can help him! Let me go please, Mayor Bo!"

The boy reacted to hearing her voice with widening eyes and then painfully started craning his head around to see her, seeming to momentarily forget that Rusl was there until he spoke to the Mayor.

"Let her go, Bo and we'll see what happens."

The Mayor let her go and she ran over to Link, trying to fight back tears as she could see his injuries.

"Oh, Link!"

She fell onto her knees next to his shaking form and pulled out a handkerchief.

"Zelda."

He responded quietly, staring back at her.

"Link, I'm gonna help you, ok? So is Rusl, he's a very good friend of mine and I need his help while I'm helping you."

Link's eyes flicked to Rusl and then back to her as Rusl crouched by his other side. Zelda motioned to Rusl and he gently moved Link's hands so that Zelda could press her handkerchief to the wound instead.

Link clenched his hands into fists, gritted his teeth, and squeezed his eyes shut against the pain; Zelda could see one small tear leak out of the corner of his eye and slowly roll down the side of his face. His whole body was tense and shaking like a bow string, but then Link suddenly slumped and his face smoothed over as he passed out.

* * *

 **A Thank You to everyone who Read and Reviewed the last chapter!**

ChanglingRin : ***grins* I'm glad you're liking it so far!** **Your first four questions will be answered in-story (probably in the next chapter); and both, but his changing form will also be fully explained in-story. I start a new line after dialog lines because I find it easier to read, you could think of it as a stylistic choice. :)**

NinjaBrony88891 : ***blushes* Thanks! I'm really happy that you like it and I hope that you liked this one! :)**

FCL: **I'm trying to help them, and hopefully Link had returned to his bada$$ status in your eyes with this chapter! ;P I can't wait to get into her background and everything, but I don't quite know how soon that will be. X( Spoilers, FCL! ;) Link in his wolf form is just about at his normal level of intelligence as a Hylian, it's just that as a wolf he has to deal with the strong instincts that come with the senses increase. As I said, his form changing will be explained in-story. ;)**

Leave a review and I'll thank you too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	4. 4 Wounds and Darkness

**Hi, everyone!**

 **This chapter took longer than I thought it would and I really struggled with it because I knew exactly what I wanted, it was just the writing it down to match that was hard. On another note, I thank everyone who has been reading and reviewing consistently, it's been a really big help! My family is moving soon, so it's been pretty hectic at home and your reviews really motivated me to make time to do something that I love!**

 **The last chapter had a record 5 reviews! *heart melting with happness* Your support as been awesome and I can't wait to write the next chapter! :D**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...but this storyline is mine at least!**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a different point in time**

* * *

"L-link? Link? Oh no, no, no, no. Link, wake up!"

Zelda pleading as she felt her tears start falling, her eyes darting to his other injuries as she tried determining why he fell unconscious. Rusl set Link's hands down by the boy's sides and untied his white headband to wrap around Link's bleeding left arm.

"This is not going to be enough for him. Zelda, keep pressure on that cut, we've got to stop the bleeding."

Rusl unbuckled his sword and pulled off his shirt, then quickly produced a knife. He began cutting the shirt into strips while glanced in the direction of the Mayor, before turned his eyes back down to his work.

"Bo, check to be sure that all these Bulblins are dead. Ilia, go get the animal stretcher from Fado's house and tell Uli to start preparing to treat multiple lacerations."

The Mayor reacted in surprise and turned his head, noticing for the first time that his daughter had followed them. Ilia and Bo frowned at each other, both mentally preparing for another one of their arguments on Ilia's chosen behavior. She crossed her arms, daring him to speak his mind on what she had done while he regarded her with more shock than anger.

"I-Ilia! You were told to stay behind and lock the gate, how could you just abandon your post like that?"

"Zel ran out, so there was no way I was just gonna-"

"Now is not the time for this, you two! This boy needs to be taken to the village to be treated and to do that we need the stretcher, now please do as I said!"

Both looked sheepish for a moment before Ilia ran off for the stretcher and Bo began checking the dead Bulblins.

The wound on Link's abdomen was the worst that they could see, but the bleeding was slowing thanks to Zelda's constant pressure and Rusl's hasty wrappings of the other bleeding wounds. They wrapped the slash in what was left of Rusl's shirt and when Ilia returned with the stretcher, Bo and Rusl carefully lifted Link onto it.

Zelda hurried ahead of the two men carrying Link, flying down the path and into the village. She sprinted to her home, flung the door open just long enough to locate her herbs bag, and sprang out the door again, racing to Uli and Rusl's house.

The stretcher bearers had already entered and she walked in just in time to see both men lift Link out of the stretcher to place him on the large dining table. Rusl was saying something to Uli about going back to check where they had found Link, but Zelda barely heard them.

Link was too limp, his only movement the rise and fall of his chest as they stepped away from him. Uli looked so scared and sad and worried as she stared down at Link from the head of the table. Zelda knew that Uli normally treated Rusl when he got hurt in battle and as such had seen many different kinds of injuries. She was a brave woman that had been healing not only Rusl, but anyone else who needed it since the two had met years ago, but Zelda had never seen her hesitate before.

Zelda stepped closer and the sound of her voice seemed to break the three adults out of their trances.

"Uli, I brought my herbs and I want to help."

All three looked at her and Uli gave her a strained smile, the other emotions she had on her face previously never leaving her eyes.

"Of course, Dear."

She gestured for her to approach and she did, but Zelda saw the look that Uli gave Rusl when she thought that Zelda wouldn't see it. A silent plea for him to finish his work quickly and hurry back, because they didn't think Link would make it. Rusl said that he and Bo would be back as soon as they were done, and that Ilia was to wait outside on the porch should Uli need anything.

"Be safe."

Uli said as they left. Zelda could hear Ilia out on the porch say something quietly to them, but she couldn't make it out.

She numbly set about checking Uli's poultice mixture and mixing another thinner paste, all while watching Link carefully. He looked much paler and his breaths were shallower than before, causing her hands to tighten on the bowl and spoon she held.

"Zelda."

She looked up at Uli.

"I think that's ready, Dear. We have to remove these bandages now to see what we're dealing with."

Uli set a bowl of warm water down next to Zelda and another one on Link's right side with some soft cleaning cloths resting beside both of them.

"You start with his neck and face, while I'll start with his arm here."

Zelda nodded, dipping one of the cloths into the water and began cleaning his face. The lower half of it was covered in a sticky, dark green colored stuff that completely coated his mouth and jawline. She didn't really want to know what that gunk was, or how it had gotten there and felt relieved as it was wiped away to reveal uninjured tan skin.

She found a small lash mark on his left cheek and applied some of the thinner paste she had made to it once it was clean. She set aside the now filthy cloth she had cleaned his face with and picked a new one, then carefully untied the bandages covering the lash on his neck. It had stopped bleeding awhile ago, so she was careful not to reopen it as she washed it, spread some paste on it, and rebandaged his neck by gently wrapping the whole thing in clean bandages.

With his face clean, he looked better she decided with a nod. Though the more she looked, the more it only seemed to highlight how unnaturally pale he was now, a thin layer of cold sweat glistening off his skin in the fire and candle light. She shook her head, then looked up at Uli.

"I'm finished, what should I work on now?"

"Why don't you bandage his left arm? When I'm done here we can start working on the slash across his stomach, that way we have the least chance of causing him to bleed out."

Zelda paled slightly, but nodded and began unwrapping the bandages over his upper left arm. She frowned as she started cleaning the strange cut on his arm, noting how it was like the ones that were on his face and neck.

"Uli? I've never seen cuts like this before, do you know what made this?"

Uli paused in her work and looked over at the now clean wound, her eyes got a strange look in them as she saw it. She looked back down and continued bandaging, avoiding Zelda's now confused stare.

"Let's wait till Rusl and Bo come back and tell us what they've found, then we'll talk about it."

Zelda bit her lip and then looked at Link's face for a few seconds before going back to her tending of the strange cut. It didn't take her very long to finish and her eyes drifted down his arm to what she could only describe as a large metal bracelet around his wrist with its trailing bit of chain. It looked ugly and heavy, like it was painful to wear.

Her eyes fell on the thin, dirty bandages wrapped around the palm of his hand and she started untying them, remembering that he hadn't wanted her to look at it before and praying that it wasn't an infected wound or something else of that ilk. There was nothing wrong with his palm which surprised her, so she turned his hand over to look at the back of it.

Her breath caught in her throat with her hair falling like a curtain in-between her and Uli so the other woman missed her shocked expression. He had the same triangles marking on his left hand that she had on her right.

Both of their marks were glowing softly and she couldn't help tracing the outline of his with her finger. Now that she looked closer she could see some differences, his brightest glowing triangle was the bottom right one and hers was the bottom left one. These differences didn't explain why what she had always regarded as a birthmark was glowing or why he had one that was so similar to hers, as she had read that birthmarks are unique to every person.

"I'm done now, Zelda."

Zelda started slightly, flipping his hand over so that the back of it was resting on the table and his glowing mark was out of Uli's sight.

"I-I'm ready."

Uli nodded, then both began unwrapping the makeshift bandages from his torso. She frowned as they got down to Zelda's blood soaked handkerchief and the remnants of Link's tattered shirt, muttering under her breath to herself as she produced a small knife.

"Rusl. You should have cut this shirt away, now I just hope that it hasn't stuck in the wound."

Zelda peeled away her handkerchief as Uli started cutting away at the tatters and using some of her water to loosen the cloth stuck to him with his blood. The wound looked worse and worse as they saw more of it, and as the blood was being cleared away it became clear that he also had a massive bruise covering his side. It's horribly dark and fresh blue-black coloring mixed with the red-brown of his dried blood made Zelda's stomach tighten, and a slightly sick expression washed over Uli's face.

"He's worse off than I thought. Hopefully he doesn't have any broken ribs because if he does he may be bleeding inside, and if he is than there's nothin-"

Uli peeled up a small seeming strip of his shirt while talking and crimson red blood came seeping out of the reopened knife wound. Zelda slapped her last completely clean cloth over the wound and started pressing down on it like she had on the path, not too hard, but firmly enough to stop the bleeding.

"I'm out of clean cloths, Uli."

She said tightly, glancing up just in time to see the woman's horrified face as she stared down at the darkening cloth. Uli turned away to face front door quickly, as if hoping that Zelda hadn't seen how bad it really was, and hurried towards it.

"I'll have Ilia get us some more clean cloths and fresh water, keep pressure on it."

As she opened the door, Zelda looked back down at the reddening cloth and then up to his face. Uli didn't think that he was going to live, she had never seemed to, and Zelda knew that if he lost much more blood then he really would.

"P-please Link. I know that you did this because you didn't want my home to be destroyed, but I don't want someone else to d-die for me. You can't do this to me. "

She lowered her head with hot tears gathering in her eyes, but then she saw her birthmark. It was glowing brighter than it had before and she felt a slight warmth blossoming in her chest, something she hadn't felt since that black night so long ago. Her mind and eyes were suddenly awhirl with book pages and rough illustrations as she mentally searched for the one thing that she had done that night that had been right.

"I-I I won't let it happen."

She pulled the cloth off and rested both hands over his wound instead, spreading her fingers out to cover as much of his injuries as possible.

She concentrated as hard as she could and felt the warmth spread slowly down her arms, glide over her fingers, and lace its way into his pain racked body. She could distantly feel the dissimilar warmth of his liquid blood coating her skin and the almost unnatural difference between his sliced flesh and the smooth muscle of his abs. She focused on that blood, turning its path back to within him and interweaving the soft flesh that had been separated into its original hardened form.

She followed the pulse of his heart, looping, weaving, twisting, and connecting that beat to the thrum of his magic as it mixed with hers; mending what had once been broken. She could feel the damage, the inner shapes and muscles contorted tightly out of formation. She poured her magic into him, steadily soothing and repairing them as she tried not to lose herself to the soft light and rush of magic like she had that night.

She felt the wound close itself beneath her touch, but as it did she felt a slight prickling of a darker magic as it came creeping up through his towards her. She instinctively flinched away from it, pulling her magic from Link's and gathered hers from where it was still in him as she fled this dark. It was as familiar to her as a nightmare that you can't seem to forget, but was no more clear than a nightmare was as to what it is that you actually fear.

She heard a door hinge squeak and her eyes flew open as she whipped her head around to look. Uli was coming back in with the water and cloths. Both women froze as they looked at each other, fear meeting confusion, and then Uli was suddenly appeared next to her by the table.

"What are you doing, Zelda?"

Her eyes glanced down to where Zelda's hands still rested on Link's torso and Zelda lifted them off quickly as she started saying whatever came to mind, unsure of what to say or where to begin.

"I-I healed him. I-I mean, I-I-I thought that he was go-going to bleed out like you said, so-so I, I tried-"

Uli gasped as Zelda's hands lifted and she saw that the slash wound was gone, then looked up at Zelda in amazement.

"How did you do this? Have you always been able to do this?"

"We-well no, I di-did this once before, but that was a lo-long time ago and I th-thought that I wouldn't be able to ag-again."

"Oh! Well, no matter how you managed to do this. You've just saved his life, Zelda."

Uli poured some clean water into the empty bowl that Zelda had been used before and set a cloth down beside it.

"Here, clean your hands while I finish cleaning this blood off him and then we can admire your handy work."

She smiled at Zelda, then walked around to the other side of the table where her bowl was and filled it before setting everything down to begin her task. Zelda dipped her hands into the cool water, numbly watching Uli wipe away the blood that was left from the knife wound.

The door opened as Rusl and the Mayor appeared, both grim faced until they saw Uli's smile, then confusion settled in.

"How is he?"

"He's going to make it, Zelda managed to save him."

There was pride in Uli's voice as she said the last part and Zelda couldn't help but blush at the warmth in it. Both men smiled at her and her blush deepened even more as they praised her work. After a minute or so of this, Rusl set them back to the matter at hand.

"Now that we know he's going to be alright, we have a lot to talk about. Bo, why don't you go ahead and send Ilia home. I don't think that she needs to be present for all this, plus I know that she must be exhausted from her long day."

The Mayor nodded in agreement and stepped out to talk with Ilia, while Rusl and Uli held a brief conversation about where to move Link to. After drying her hands, Zelda started brushing Link's slightly damp hair out of his face. He still looked a bit pale to her, but he didn't feel clammy anymore and just that knowledge made her smile to herself.

She heard an argument erupt out on the porch and that sudden noise made her aware that she was ghosting her fingers over his angler eyebrows as she listened to the conversations around her. She blushed, but then smiled slightly and continued running her fingers over his facial features lightly. She strictly regulated herself and tried to keep her eyes focused solely on his face. He wasn't wearing a shirt anymore and it wouldn't be proper to look, but her eyes still slid a bit south once or twice before she blushingly caught herself.

After this happened for the third time, she distracted herself by looking at his bright blue earrings. They looked relatively plain to her as they were just small rings, and she didn't want to mess with them because she didn't know if it could hurt him in some way. She touched them gently and found that they were made of some kind of stone that had been carefully chipped into a smooth textured circle. She blinked and looked at his face again, her head slowly tilting sideways as she thought.

The door opened and she turned her head to see the Mayor walk in with a tired look on his face.

"It didn't go very well I'm guessing."

Rusl said as he and Bo walked over and lifted Link off the table and to the carefully covered sofa.

"No, it didn't."

The Mayor sighed heavily.

"I just don't understand her sometimes, but I guess that she's a young woman now and maybe I'm not supposed to. I just wish that her mother was still here to help me bridge the gap."

"I can try talking to her tomorrow if you'd like Bo."

Uli said as she and Zelda moved some of the dining room chairs to near the sofa for everyone to sit on.

"That would be helpful I'm sure, but you may be too busy with this one and your little boy to be worrying about a perfectly healthy teenage girl."

"I would be happy to keep an eye on both of them for you, Uli, while you talk to Ilia. I-"

Zelda was silenced by Rusl's raised hand and a clearing of his throat as they all to their seats.

"I believe that this talk with Ilia can be discussed at a later time because we have a far more pressing topic on hand to deal with."

"Of-of course, Rusl. I'm sorry for distracting us, it's just that I worry about my daughter too much sometimes and it interferes other business. However, I can set that aside while we put together what we know about this mystery boy and decide what to do with him."

"Do with him?"

Zelda echoed confusedly.

"What do you mean, 'do with him'? Won't he just stay here in the village with us?"

Rusl frowned slightly at the Mayor, then leaned forward and patted her knee comfortingly.

"He most likely will, but we need to be careful and review what we know about him. Not to learn if we should throw him out, but to help him fit in here or even just to know if we should be keeping a close eye on him for his own sake. So with this all in mind, why don't you tell us what you know about him? He somehow knows you because he recognized your voice and knew your name, how do you know him?"

She took a deep breath and glanced at Link's face before speaking.

"His name is Link and I only met him about a week ago when I was at the Spirit's Spring. I had been there with Ilia, but she left early to do something for Sera, so I was alone when I met him. He- he was a wolf then and didn't say anything, but he-"

"A wolf!?"

Uli and Bo exclaimed at the same time, eyes wide with surprise and disbelief.

"Let her finish please."

Rusl said before nodding at Zelda to continue.

"He-he was injured and I wanted to help him, so I told him about the Spring's healing powers. I-I could tell that he was a Hylian, and not a wolf, and I wanted him to trust me. So I didn't tell anyone about him and kept meeting him alone at the spring. I wanted him to come back to the village with me because I didn't think that he would be safe sleeping out there in the woods, but it took a few days before he seemed like he trusted me enough for me to ask him to do that."

"Was he skittish or frightened of us for some reason?"

Uli asked and Zelda shook her head.

"No, he's not like that. I don't think that he was scared of us or anything like that, but he never came out to see me when Ilia was around and I think that he was careful to avoid everyone else. I don't know why."

"What happened when you asked him to come back with you?"

"W-w-well..."

Zelda started while fiddling with her skirt nervously.

"I-I sort of ra-ran away after asking him. I was asking him and he surprised me an-and I got flustered. So I left him there telling him to think about his answer and that he could tell me it when I saw him the next day."

"What was his answer?"

Uli asked softly.

"I-I I don't know, that happened last night and I never got a chance to talk to him again today before this h-happened."

Zelda felt tears welling up in her eyes and she lowered her head even more.

"Oh, Dear, it's alright."

Uli said as she reached over and started gently rubbing Zelda's back.

"What did he do to fluster you last night?"

"W-well, I was talking to him, but wasn't really facing him and he moved his face very cl-close to mine. I think he was trying to see my expression or eyes, or maybe he was just trying to get me to look at him, but it was very sudden and it was getting dark, and-and that's what happened."

"What did you two normally do together?"

Rusl asked, his eyes resting on Link's face with a soft neutral expression.

"Well, he was a wolf the entire time that I was going there to see him except for last night and besides eating the food I brought him, he just normally stood or sat beside me; listening to me tell him about the herbs in the garden or what had happened in the village that day."

"Did he tell you anything about himself other than his name?"

"N-no, but I don't think that he could talk while he was a wolf because the first things he did last night was telling me his name which I didn't know before then."

"So you don't really know anything about him."

Bo said with a slight frown.

"We-w-well, I know that he's very kind and brave and honest, and that he really liked the feeling at the Spring. Evil things hate the feeling of the air there and so he couldn't have been anything but a good man if he liked it so much there."

"Is there anything else you can tell us about him, Zelda?"

She shook her head while staring down at her hands resting in her lap, keeping them from seeing her eyes and guilty face.

"Well, him being able to change into a wolf matches up with the very strange injuries that we found on the Bulblins bodies. Large tearing bites from a mouth that's much different than his led me to think that he had an animal with him that ran away after he got hurt, but now we know that it was just him there."

"Which isn't any less scary than if he was some kind of freakish animal tamer."

Mayor Bo added with a frown and slight shudder.

"Be that as it may."

Uli started with a worried glance at Link as she spoke.

"He's only a young Hylian man, why is he able to turn into a wolf? He can't be a spirit of the forest because these horrible injuries couldn't happen to a spirit, what's wrong with him?"

Uli, Zelda, and Bo all looked at Rusl who was stroking his beard thoughtfully, waiting for him to speak his mind because between them he was the most traveled and most likely to have at least an educated guess as to what they were dealing with. They sat quietly to let him to gather his thoughts for a minute or two and then when he went to speak, the three leaned forward slightly.

"You're quite right, Dear. He isn't a spirit I don't think, but don't get your hopes too high on him not being an animal tamer yet, Bo. Zelda, have you ever heard of the Sheikah?"

Zelda blinked.

"Yes, the legendary Hylian shadow tribe that guarded the royal family. My green past book talks about them, why?"

"I believe that Link is a member of the Sheikah tribe."

"What?!"

Bo and Uli gasped, staring at Rusl while Zelda's wide eyes flashed to Link's face.

"But-but the purge that Ganondorf ordered after the plot by them seventeen years ago!"

Bo exclaimed to an impassive Rusl.

"What about it?"

"How could a child survive that? Ganondorf purged some of Hyrule's nobility and hunted extensively for the Sheikah because of what happened!"

"He did, but the Sheikah are nothing if not resourceful, and Ganondorf had already been hunting the ones still loyal to Hyrule's Princess for the seven years of his reign before that. All that you've brought up simply points to Link having had good parents that were careful to avoid where the hammer fell, that's not a crime and it is certainly possible. I mean, look at where we live. We have a whole village here and we're not even remotely trained in the same level in secrecy and concealment as they are."

"But Rusl, surely-"

"What makes you think that he is a Sheikah?"

The other three turned their heads to look at Zelda, who was still looking at Link.

"Well, I think that he's one of them for a few reasons. Firstly, from what I could see of the Bulblins injuries, this boy fought them with his natural weapons as a wolf and through hand to hand combat even though his opponents were armed. It's a dangerous thing to do, going into battle with such a disadvantage, but he did and it certainly seems that he had the skills to pull it off. There's only one Hylian tribe in what was once the lands of Hyrule that I can think of that had the training to be able to single-handedly take on eight Bulblins; and that's the Sheikah."

"Oh..."

"Secondly, do you see those blue earrings he's wearing?"

Everyone nodded, all eyes now trained on Link's ears.

"Those are special earrings given to boys during their coming of age ceremony in the Sheikah tribe, that are carefully carved out of a very rare kind of blue stone."

"Those might not be his though, and earrings combined with a foolhardy plan of attack don't prove-"

"I'm going to cut you off right there, Bo, because I wasn't finished yet. Thirdly, after the supposed attempt on his life seventeen years ago, Ganondorf, with the help of some other magic users from the desert, placed a curse on the Sheikah."

"What kind of curse?"

Zelda asked, visibly repressing her urge to touch Link and release the tears of sympathy she was struggling to hold at bay.

"A curse that would make other people terrified of them, it was thought that with this curse on them the Sheikah wouldn't be able to hide from him any longer or receive aid from anyone."

"And you think that this curse is why he turns into a wolf?"

Uli questioned in a cautious voice.

"I'm afraid so."

"Oh, the poor boy."

Uli said looking across at Link sorrowfully.

"Do you know what it does to him and the other Sheikah more specifically?"

Zelda asked, looking up in time to see Rusl shaking his head.

"No, the only reason I know anything this detailed about them is because of my friend Shad, who you should remember from when he came to visit, is quite the avid scholar. He looked into the Sheikah for someone and told me a good deal about what he had learned when he was finished; although most of the people in what was Hyrule know of the Sheikah tribe by name as either monsters or as the guardians they once were."

"Oh..."

Zelda said thickly, reaching out to gently adjust the thin blanket that Uli had draped over the still unconscious Link. Not because she thought he needed a blanket, but more for his modesty's sake. She then started at him as Uli continued her circular rubbing on her back.

The crackle of fire the only sound in the room as everyone sat lost in their various thoughts.

"What weapons did the Bulblins have?"

Uli asked suddenly, breaking the heavy silence that had followed Rusl's explanation.

"Bows, whips, knives, and clubs."

Rusl answered after a couple seconds of surprised silence.

"Well that matches up with his different injuries, which may mean that he killed all the Bulblins before any managed to get away...Did they have any rope or chains with them?"

"Rope or chains? Not that I saw, but they had two riding boars with them so they may have some being carried by them."

Zelda lifted her head and looked at Rusl.

"Rusl, what is a whip?"

"It's a weapon that is made of a length of hard leather with a handle on one end that you hold while using it."

"Is that what made those strange cuts on him that I pointed out to you, Uli?"

"Y-yes Dear."

Zelda blinked at Uli and cocked her head.

"If you knew what it was, why didn't you just tell me when I asked?"

Uli looked away from her and Rusl leaned forward to get Zelda's attention.

"She doesn't really like to talk about it, Zelda. But you know Uli, even if she thought she knew what it was, she would have wanted to check the evidence with others before telling you something that may have been false."

Zelda bit her lip and looked at Uli again, then reached out and hugged her while resting her head on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry if I said something that upset you Uli."

"No, it's fine Dear."

The Mayor was oblivious to this distraction before him as he stared intensely at Link.

"That boy, is-is one of the feared Sheikah? How is that possible?! I mean, what in the Sacred Realm is he even doing around here in the first place?!"

"Now that is a good question."

Rusl said, leaning back in his chair while stroking his beard.

"Furthermore, we know that he was imprisoned wherever he had been before because of the manacle around his wrist."

"Perhaps he's part of that wall project of Ganondorf's that you found out about."

Bo suggested with his arms crossed, eyes scrunched, and face screwed up in deep thought.

"It could be, but I have a feeling that we won't really know until he wakes up and we ask him."

"Perhaps then now would be a good time to adjourn this meeting and go to bed, some of us have had a very trying day."

Uli said with a pointed look down at Zelda, who indeed looked quite exhausted after she had pulled out from her hug and turned back to partially facing Link.

"I agree, however we should have someone out here with him in case he wakes up."

Rusl said as he stood and stretched.

"I can stay with him."

Zelda said with a valiant attempt to look more awake than she really was. Uli stood up and gave her a gentle smile as she patted her shoulder.

"I'm sure that one of the men can do it, you go get some rest, Dear. You've already done a lot for him today, now do something for yourself and go get some sleep in your own bed."

Zelda looked at Link one last time, then nodded and stood tiredly. She turned to pick up her chair, but Uli stopped her.

"It's fine, Dear. We can put the chairs away, you go on."

Zelda nodded slowly, then walked to the front door and said a "good night's" over her shoulder as she stepped out onto the dimly lit by a single torch porch.

She froze, staring out into the darkness as the songs of frogs and crickets drifted up to her. She took a few steps to the edge of the porch and froze again before hastily backing to the door. She did a few more starts and stops, but never made it quite as far as the first time before backing up to the door again. Shivering slightly with her back pressed against the door, she turned her head and raised a fist to knock on it when she heard the conversation going on inside the house between Rusl and the Mayor.

"Zelda's quite taken with this boy and I don't like it."

"I think it's more that she's very sympathetic towards him. I mean, she said that when she first met him he was injured and was in all probably, half starved as well. Who wouldn't be?"

"But he was a wolf! What was she thinking, not telling us about him!?"

"She said that she wanted to get his trust and if she felt like that was the only way to get it, then it probably was. She is a very smart and wise girl for her age, so she had a plan and if she suddenly felt that she couldn't handle it, then she would have come to us."

"Why was he hiding from us in the first place? If he was a good person, then why was he sculking around the village?"

Uli suddenly spoke up angrily from further back in the house and Zelda blinked at the strong emotions she heard in her voice.

"For any number of reasons! We don't know what was happening to him before he found his way here and into the kind and capable hands of our Zelda. He had been imprisoned as we can see because of this horrid manacle, and we have no idea why! Although it is most likely as Rusl said, because he happens to be a Sheikah. He may have been beaten and starved regularly or simply locked up somewhere away from other people. After something like that, could you just instantly go back to trusting people again? I mean, the curse was put on them seventeen years ago, so the poor boy has had to deal with it his whole life!"

"Be that as it may Uli, we know next to nothing about him and-"

"He's no older than Zelda, so how much danger do you think he could be to us!? What's he going to do, reveal where we are and go back to his life as a slave and prisoner?! He was willing to risk his life for people he didn't even know by fighting eight well armed Bulblins right outside of our village, for Goddesses sakes Bo!"

"Uli, dear. Perhaps we should contin-"

"I saw the marks on his back, Rusl, and on his wrists and ankles as well. He's such a strong looking boy that they would have locked him up with thick manacles like the one still on him, for fear of him breaking free."

Zelda heard Uli start crying and she pulled her head back from the door, blinking back tears of her own. She put her ear back to the door after a few seconds and could just make out the Mayor's voice.

"I'm sorry, Uli. I didn't mean to upset you and you're absolutely right, *unintelligible murmurings* please stop crying."

"I-I don't think that we should tell anyone else about him being a Sheikah."

"I agree, I'll tell Zelda when she comes back here first thing in the morning to check on him. I'll stay up with him first, dear, you get some sleep."

"I'll head home then."

Said Bo from near the door and Zelda panicked, hastily knocking on the door before he had a chance to open it to find her just standing around outside. He opened it and his eyes widened when he saw her.

"Ze-zelda! What are you still doing here?"

"I'm-I'm sorry, but it's so d-dark out and I-I-"

"Say no more."

Bo said, relaxing as he thought that this meant that she hadn't heard any of what they had said and giving her a gentle grin.

"I forgot about your fear of the dark and didn't see how late it was. Come on, we'll walk back home together."

* * *

 **A big Thank You to all who Read and Reviewed last chapter!**

Faithy : **Aw, thanks! I'm glad that you're liking it and I hope that you liked this chapter too! Let me know what you thought! :)**

NinjaBrony8891 : ***blushes* I'm so happy that you like it thus far and regarding Link's changing, it is mostly explained here but it will be fully explained later on too.**

ZeldaPotter29 : ***blushing deeply* Th-thank you! I'm so happy to read that you're loving it and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the editing advise. I could NEVER see your suggestions as hating, they're so helpful, and it makes me so happy that you are taking your creative energy and applying it here to help! I can't wait to see what you think could be improved in the chapter above, (a lot of things I bet xP) so keep that GOOD habit of yours rolling! Gotta to love suspense, right? ;)**

Imagination that : ***blushes*** **Thank you! How they managed to catch him will be reveled shortly...I hope! :'( Stick around and you'll get to see what I'll do/have done to them! *evil laughter* My poor characters! *sobs heart out* I'm such a meany!**

FCL : **Thanks buddy! Yes, I love writing her because she's so different than any other character I've done before. It may have been a wee bit more clunky than I wanted and I normally avoid using measurement systems in my stories, but it was important for the story so I put both in there. Maybe I should have had Rusl say one and Colin chime in with the other, but I didn't think of it then. *** **Embarrassed** **grin* I try really hard to write good fight scenes so it's great to hear that you're loving them! Golden Wolf forever! Gah! Stop guessing the plot before it happens, FCL! Am I that perceptible? *sits in a corner***

Leave a review and I'll thank you too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	5. 5 Green Stories

**Hi, Everyone!**

 **So a super short Author's Note here this time.**

 **This chapter had originally been going to be longer, but due to too many great ideas I have had to cut it in half with the first half being here now. I have had very little time to write because of Schoolwork stuffs, but when I have had time, most of it has been devoted to this story of mine. However if you are also a reader of any of my other stories, DON'T WORRY, I will continue writing them as well. I just have to pick and choose what I spend my very limited writing time on and right now I feel like writing for this one.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...but this idea is mine!**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a different point in time**

* * *

Zelda woke with the dawn and turned her worried face to the uncovered window, staring out until a smile slowly spread across her face. She grinned at the small potted plant resting on the windowsill and quickly got up to get dressed.

Her clothes on, she stole out of the house as quietly as she could as to not wake up Ilia or Bo, and hurried towards Rusl and Uli's house.

A fine silvery mist rose from the stream and lake, slowly lacing over the land surrounding them before the day would melt it away. The village was still covered in deep blue shadows because while the sun was casting light, it had not yet climbed into the sky enough to have its golden rays spill over the high natural walls around the village. Some crickets still performed quietly in the deeper grasses she ran by, but the night noises were changing into the day cries of birds and other things that had slept through the earlier show.

The boards of the porch creaked under her sandaled feet as she walked up to the door and knocked softly. She heard the door unlock, then a tired looking Rusl opened it and smiled at her.

"Good morning, Zelda."

"Good morning, Rusl. May I come in please?"

"Of course."

He stepped aside and she entered the very quiet house with her eyes instantly resting on Link, who looked to be in the same position on the sota that he had been in last night.

"Are Uli and Colin not awake yet?"

"No. Uli was exhausted when she finally went to bed last night and Colin hasn't shown his head yet, so I can only assume that means that he's not either."

She nodded, walking over to the family's cooking pot and starting to fill it with the last of the gathered water from the previous day.

"H-how is Link doing?"

"He hasn't woken up yet, but he's actually sleeping and is not unconscious anymore."

Zelda breathed a sigh of relief, then lifted the cooking pot and set it on the hook above the embers of last night's fire before turning to give Rusl a smile.

"I'll go ahead and start making breakfast for everyone and keep an eye on things if you want to go to bed now."

"That would be nice."

He said while nodding and scratching his beard. She turned to tend to the fire, rekindling the now uncovered embers into little flames, but looked back at him after a few minutes had past. He hadn't moved from where he stood and wasn't looking at her, but he clearly as about to say something as he stared down at Link with a serious expression.

"Uli told me about how you magically healed that slash wound of his, and I wanted to thank you again for what you did."

She blinked and then opened her mouth to speak, but he continued.

"If it hadn't been for you, she said that this boy would have died and he would have died defending a village of people who had no idea he existed. I would have had no idea he was out there until this morning because I had already gone out into the woods yesterday and would have had no reason to go again before morning. His fight with the Bulblins was already over by the time we found him, so I wouldn't have heard him when I went to lock the gates and there's no way he would have survived the night bleeding the way he was."

He finally looked up at her.

"You saved his life multiple times yesterday."

She opened her mouth again to speak, but his expression suddenly changed into a teasing look.

"See what you can get out of it."

Her cheeks instantly flushed a dark red and she stared wide-eyed at Rusl, trying her best to form her stutters into coherent words with a mind suddenly frozen. He chuckled most amusedly at her reaction, the brief twinkle of mischievous light in his eyes told her that he had read into some of her scrambling thoughts and was thinking of more things for her to stammer about.

She spun back around to the cooking pot and feverishly continued working on the fire until it was as warm as her face felt. She glanced back at Rusl and saw that the dreaded light was gone, leaving a once again exhausted man who looked like he should be asleep with his wife.

"Go to bed now, Rusl."

She said with a kind smile to him over her shoulder.

"I have everything under control, so don't worry and go get some sleep."

He blinked at her and then slowly nodded his head, a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

"Alright, if you insist."

"Sleep well."

She told him quietly before he when into the bedroom and after the final touches to the fire, she came to sit in the chair next to the sofa. She watched Link for a few minutes and then pulled out her green Past Book. She opened it as quietly as she could to the passage she had been translating last, her mind focusing on the words before her as her companion slept.

 **-X-**

Just as she had finally figured out an entire passage of when the writer was reunited with her strange friend dressed in green, she saw Link's head move slightly out of the corner of her eye and happily turned a smile towards him even though he had yet to open his eyes. His brow furrowed into an almost grimace of pain, then smoothed out as he opened heavy, sleep-ladened blue eyes to stare up at the ceiling.

He swallowed slowly and his fingers curled slightly against the thin blanket, then he stiffened. His eyes widened and she saw panic in them as his left hand flashed up to his throat to grip the bandages there.

"Link, stop!"

She gasped as she hastily grabbed his hand to keep him from tearing off the bandages and hurting himself. His head snapped over to face her and he froze, shock and a bit of trepidation showing in his eyes as he stared at her.

"..Zelda?"

"Yes, it's me. Good morning, Link."

She smiled at him and felt his fingers loosen their hold on the fabric of the bandages, after a second his whole body relaxed as well when he realized what was actually around his neck. He almost unconsciously pulled his hand from hers and slid it down under the blanket, hiding the markings and manacle on it from her.

She opened her mouth to ask him about the triangles, but he blinked and a strange expression crossed his face. She saw his other hand move under the blanket down to where the slash wound had been and a slightly confused look appeared. He sat up and pulled the blanket off himself to look at it, unintentionally exposing his entire bare torso to her as he did so.

His mouth opened slightly as he stared at the perfect tanned skin of his abs where the cut should have been and she looked there too, but instantly averted her eyes as her face flushed bright pink.

He finally turned his head to look at her, wide blue eyes telling her that he knew that she had been the one to do this. He stared at her with some kind of strange awe and straightened up into a full sitting position, a slight wince twitching across his face as he did.

She felt a sudden flash of concern as the thought occurred to her that the healing might not have been complete. She thought that it had been, but knowing her, it was entirely possible that she messed up somehow.

"You're not hurting there anymore, are you?"

He shook his head instantly and she couldn't help but release a sigh of relief. He stared at her intently as if trying to read her mind and she found she couldn't hold his gaze without her face burning, so she dropped her eyes safely down to where her hands rested on her lap. She saw him shift forward and start reaching out to her, but then he stopped halfway.

She could still feel his eyes boring into her and the silence of unasked questions hung heavily between them as the seconds slid by.

She found the courage to risk a quick glance at him only when she felt the intensity subside a bit as he moved back to sitting straight-backed as he had before and her heart was pounding blood into her ears so hard that she was sure that they had become permanently pink. When she looked she was surprised to see a gentle confusion on his face and he had cocked his head to one side -despite the pain of doing so- with many different emotions skittered across in his eyes as he regarded her.

"Why?"

She blinked at his question, but gave her answer immediately.

"Because you were hurt, and I know that it was my fault that this happened to you in the first place."

He cocked his head in the other direction, clearly waiting for her to say more and so she plunged on.

"You fought with those Bulblins to protect my home, so how could I not do something to help you with the injuries you got while doing that?"

He seemed to roll her answer around in his mind for a couple seconds, then slowly lowered his head to her.

"I'm in your debt."

Thoughts of her earlier conversation with Rusl spring to mind, she waved her hands in front of her face and shook her head wildly while faintly blushing.

"Oh no, no, no, don't think of it that way! You were the one that saved the village, not me. I only healed you after that, so we're even!"

"No, we're not."

She froze at his words and stared at his messy light brown hair, but then shook herself and dared to press on with her argument.

"You did what you did to protect people!"

"And you did what you did to save me."

She bit her lip and tried to think of something else to say that would convince him, but as she stared at his downturned head she realized that she wouldn't be able to. She silently sighed, then let her tumbling thoughts go with a small smile.

"I don't feel like you owe me."

He straightened his head to look at her with startled eyes, as if he couldn't quite wrap his mind around what she said. She hesitantly smiled at him, wondered if it was too soon for this, and plucked up her courage to speak again.

"Th-this could be your home too, if-if you want."

The previous expression vanished and he looked her in the eyes unblinkingly.

"I want to stay here with you."

Now she was positive that there was no blood anywhere in her body except for in her face and ears.

"S-s-s-so y-you wa-want to live h-here? G-good."

She stammered out as she tried to fight down her tomato-faced blush. He looked amused at her reaction and she dropped her eyes down to her lap again, a thousand thoughts racing and tripping over themselves as her mind tried to work out what to do.

His head appeared low in her vision looking at something, so without moving her head she looked at him. He was staring down at the green book in her lap with a very interested expression, head slowly cocking to one side as he studied its worn cover.

"Would you like to take a closer look at it?"

She inquired softly and at his nod, she placed it on his lap. He stared at the green cover for a few seconds, then opened it almost reverently and began slowly flipping through its pages as his eyes skimmed the contents.

"I don't think that you'll be able to read it because it's written in an older form of Hylian."

He gave her a sideways look and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"I can read it somewhat, but it still takes a long time for me to fully understand what's written."

He looked impressed and her stomach squeezed happily at that he didn't think it was a silly waste of time to do such whimsical things as translate an old, hard to read, and non-important book like this.

"Would- would you like me to read you some?"

She asked nervously, wondering if she was pushing this boring interest of hers too far with him as her fingers twisted the cloth of her skirt into little bunches against her palms. His eyes suddenly sparkled and he flashed a grin at her, nodding his head very stiffly, but eagerly; like Colin did when she offered to take him fishing. She couldn't help the stupid happy smile on her face as she took the book back from him and found her favorite part at the beginning.

He had lay back against the arm of the sofa and taking his eyes resting on her steadily as a signal that he was ready to listen, she began.

 **-X-**

His arms really hurt him and she could tell because of the way his face became totally expressionless whenever he moved them. They really hurt and he was perfectly hiding it from everyone but her. Whenever she asked him about it, he would just give her a gentle look of "don't worry about it" and then carried on with whatever it was that he was doing.

She didn't understand why he was hiding his pain, nor why he didn't really talk very much, but he did seem to like being around Uli, Rusl, and Colin after they woke up. He seemed particularly fond of Colin as he displayed just the right amount of gentle, rough, and goofy that Colin needed to really open up without scarin-

"Zelda."

She felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit as it broke her from her thoughts. She looked at Uli sitting next to her and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, I was lost in thought. Could you repeat that please?"

Uli smiled understandingly and then nodded her head.

"As soon as Bo gets here we'll start."

Zelda nodded, then went back to her staring off into space and her thoughts returned.

She didn't think that they should be asking him all this questions about himself so soon. After all, he had just met them and hadn't even been introduced to half the village yet. She didn't understand Mayor Bo's hurry to know more about him, it's not like Link was going anywhere.

She was broken from her thoughts again by Colin's sudden laughter and she couldn't help but smile over at the table where Colin had been drawing pictures to aid in his telling an attentive Link about the village. At first she didn't know what Colin was laughed about, but then she saw the face expression Link was making while trying to wrap his mind around what he had just been told about Beth's family, a threesome that he clearly did not understand in the least.

"Just wait till you meet them, Bath's parents are even weirder that I can explain."

Colin managed to say through his giggles, then they all saw Uli's slightly disapproving frown and both he and Zelda swallowed down the rest of their giggles. Rusl walked out of the bedroom and over to the cooking pot above the fire to check on the beginnings of tomorrow's breakfast, then over to give Uli a quick kiss on the cheek as he sat down next to her.

Zelda noticed Link watching this interaction between Rusl and Uli with a somewhat puzzled and curious look on his face, but it instantly changed to a mild concern when Colin sighed unhappily and sat back in his seat.

"What's the matter?"

Rusl asked from where he sat as Link cocked his head at Colin, eyes trying to catch the boy's.

"I was trying to draw Sera so that Link could see her, but I just can't get her right."

Rusl got up and walked over to crouch down next to Colin's chair to see the picture, while Link tilted his head almost completely sideways trying to see the picture from the same angle Colin did.

"I don't see anything wrong with it, she looks perfectly plump and scolding to me."

Rusl said cheerfully to Colin as he glanced back with a slight grin at Uli's admonitoraly raised eyebrows before looking back at Colin's hopeful face.

"Really?!"

"Yes, I believe you captured her likeness remarkably well to help Link prepare himself for meeting her, however," -he started saying hastily after another glance at Uli's reproachful face- "I think it's about time for us to be getting over to Talo's now for your stayover tonight. Do you have all your things together like your mother asked?"

Colin nodded instantly and slid off his chair before turning to Link, eyes looking down as his hands slowly turning over each other as he clearly struggled to summon his nerve to say something.

"I know that I said that I'd tell you all about the village today, but I have to go to Talo's now...so I can't finish today like I promised...Sorry, Link."

He slowly looked up to see Link's eyes were warm with affection, a slight smile appeared on his face when Colin looked at him and not the floor.

"I'll wait."

He said softly, instantly banishing Colin's worry and causing a smile to spring to his face too.

"Really?!"

Link nodded without breaking eye contact with the boy and Colin turned happily to go get his things. Link's eyes followed Colin till he was out of the room and then he looked back at the others with his normal neutral expression. Both Uli and Rusl were smiling at Link and he blinked back, as if he didn't understand why they were pleased with him. Colin came walking back out of the bedroom with his few night things, giving Link an excellent excuse to look away from the two adults and hide his growing embarrassment.

"Ready to go?"

Rusl asked, standing up as Colin nodded. They both started walking out but then Colin hurried back over to the table that he had been coloring at, grabbed something a few sheets of the rough paper he had been coloring on, and turned to Link with a few pictures in his hand.

"You can finish coloring this one of the Waterwheel if you want because you like it so much, or you could do this one of Sera."

Link blinked at him in wide-eyed silence, then slow reached out and took the picture of the Waterwheel from Colin's much smaller, outstretched hand. He looked down at the picture and then back up at Colin, still not quite believing that Colin was giving it to him. Colin reached across the table and pushed his coloring sticks till they were right in front of Link, who followed every movement without turning his head.

Colin grinned up at him and Link looked back at the boy's face, his own having gone completely blank.

"I'm going to leave these here for you to use and if you don't color it tonight, we could color it together tomorrow...If you want to?"

Link nodded dumbly at Colin's question and watched him unblinkingly as the boy said his "goodnights" to everyone before leaving with Rusl, then Link lowered his head to stare down at the picture in his hand. He only lifting it again to look up at Zelda as she walked over to sit beside him, he had a odd look in his eyes that she didn't quite understand, so she gave him a small reassuring smile even though she wasn't sure he needed it.

"Are you going to color the picture now or wait till you can do it with him tomorrow?"

He looked back down at the paper without answering, but lifted his hand and began tracing his finger slowly along the dark slightly squiggly outlines Colin had drawn with a strange sweet-sadness in his eyes. He had just started tracing over the lines for the second time when she decided to try speaking again, slightly worried by this strange behavior.

"I bet that he would be happier if you started coloring it and then asked him for help with it if you think that it would be too painful to do on your own because of your arms."

He glanced at her again and nodded once as he set the paper down on the table, careful to avoid brushing the coloring sticks lest they fall over the edge.

"Zelda, could you please grab my knitting needles for me? They're in my basket under the kitchen table."

Zelda nodded and stood from the sofa to fetch them for Uli, pausing briefly as she went to hand them over when she caught Uli's eye. Her look told Zelda not to be so pushy, "let him decide what he wants to do with the picture". Zelda flushed slightly as she mental reviewed what she had said to him, had she been pushy? She had only wanted to help him because he had seemed so surprised and perhaps at a bit of a loss at what to do with the picture he had been given.

She turned to speak to Link just as the door opened again with the Mayor and Rusl entered the house.

"Good evening, Uli, Zelda!"

Mayor Bo walked to the chair that had been set for him and sat down before he looked fully at Link. Zelda and Rusl took their respective seats as Link shifted slightly away from the table so that he could see everyone clearly without moving his head.

"Evening to you as well, Link."

The Mayor said hesitantly, as if unsure that he should be giving Link such a greeting, before cleared his throat noisily to get everyone's attention even though everyone was already looking at him, and spoke.

"So, the reason we are all gathered here is to ask you a few questions, Link. You know, to get to understand who you are and what you're doing here, that sort of thing."

Link just kind of stared at him with a neutral expression, eyes guarded.

"We'll start with the most pressing matter, are you a Sheikah?"

Link's entire posture changed from the natural position to a defencive one in a heartbeat, eyes blazing a challenge to the man across from him as his head rose till he was eye-level with Mayor Bo.

"Bo!"

Uli exclaimed in an angry voice with a deeply disapproving frown on her face, but he ignored her to continue watching Link carefully, like he expected him to do something dangerous.

"We don't care if you are one, we just want to know what we're dealing with here."

Link didn't even blink at the Mayor intended comforting words, but Uli leaned forward so that he could see her face clearly without having to disengage with Bo.

"Link, we have no intention of hurting you if you are a Sheikah, we just want to know so that we can help you in any way we can. We fully understand that you're wary of sharing this with us, but I promise that we harbor no ill will against you."

Bo looked at Uli like he was going to argue, but the glare he received from her and Rusl silenced him.

Link finally looked away from Bo and straight to Zelda, his eyes burning intensely into hers as he searched for something. She felt heat rise to her cheeks, but something told her softly not to look away and she held his gaze. He didn't want to tell them anything, he didn't know what they would do with that information or how they would use it against him and that...scared and saddened him.

She blinked, surprised at what she could see in the blue depths before her, at what he was showing her intentionally or not.

He thought that the villagers might do something and he didn't want that, so he thought that the best way to avoid something happening was staying silent no matter what they did.

She wanted to tell him that he could trust the others, that they would never hurt him and he could live happily here without worrying about all the things that had happened to him before, but she couldn't say all that in front of everybody. She didn't know how to say it and as she stared back at him, she tried to translate her feelings into words mentally because then she may be able to fix this worry of his.

She didn't know that her eyes were brimming with emotions and words, but he could read them and both felt a pulse from their triangles. She smiled hesitantly and he seemed to have found what he was searching for.

He looked back at the others with varying levels of wariness and then focused on the Mayor.

"Yes."

Mayor Bo looked so flabbergasted that he couldn't speak and his eyes bulged as he stared at Link.

"Where were you before you met Zelda?"

Rusl asked, swooping in to take the reins of this conversation from the stunned Bo.

"..I worked at the edge of the forest on the wall."

Link was looking at Rusl like he knew that Rusl had seen the wall he was talking about and Zelda saw Uli shake her head sorrowfully.

"How long had you been working on it?"

"Almost since the beginning."

"Why are they building it?"

"So that no living thing can pass beyond its side upon the wall's completion."

The tight, almost monotone voice he was speaking in sounded like he was reciting something that he had heard others say many times or like he was fighting the urge to just stop talking.

"Where are they getting the men to build it?"

"The large farming lands just beyond the forest."

Rusl's eyes widened and he and Uli shared a disturbed look that seemed to be a whole conversation between them, leaving Bo the opportunity to continued the questioning now that he had recovered enough to speak again.

"Did they know that you were a Sheikah?"

"..Only the Gerudo woman leader."

"The Gerudo are Ganondorf's most loyal followers and he has had long standing orders to kill Sheikah. Why didn't she kill you if she knew what you were?"

There was a few moments where the only sounds to be heard was their breathing and the sharp crack of the flames from the fire as they licked hungrily at the exposed pale hardwood.

"...I don't know."

He was lying, Zelda could tell and a quick glance at the others told her that Uli knew too.

"How did you get those earrings?"

Rusl asked, trying to change the subject and Link's eyes hardened because of something only he could see, his voice suddenly lacking the monotone vailing it had been carefully covered with.

"I earned them."

Silence.

"If this Gerudo wanted to keep you alive for some reason and didn't want others to know what you were, why did she let you keep them?"

There was a pause as a flicker of anger danced across Link's eyes in the firelight.

"She wanted me to have something she could take, _they're just_ _earrings_ after all."

The bitter way he spoke coupled with the sharp glint in his blue eyes nearly broke Zelda's heart, that someone had mocked their importance to him and had tried to keep him in line by threatening to take them.

"Do you have any family, Dear?"

Uli asked gently to which Link shook his head, his face and eyes having gone to their perfectly neutral expression again.

"Will you..turn into a wolf again?"

Bo questioned somewhat hesitantly and Link narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

"Yes."

"When will it happen?"

"I don't know."

"How did that never give you away while you were working on the wall?"

Rusl asked, leaning forward in interest.

"The Gerudo just chained me away from the eyes and ears of others as soon as it happened."

"But how did she explain your disappearances?"

Zelda said with a deeply puzzled look on her face to which Link gave her an odd look.

"She never explained to anyone, she just put me back with the others when I was a Hylian again."

"Can you control yourself as a wolf?"

Link snorted at Bo's question and seemed to deem that this was all the answer it needed, but Bo didn't seem to get the message or he just ignored it as he pressed on.

"Can you?"

"...Yes."

Link finally answered with the challenging look in his eyes again.

"Do you wish to stay here in the village with us? Because we'd love to have you."

Uli said kindly to Link as she gave a very unkind look to Mayor Bo when he started opening his mouth to speak with an indignant look on his face.

"..Yes."

Link answered, looking back and forth as a silent war of wills played out between Uli and Bo.

"Good!"

Rusl said with a loud clap of his hands, startling everyone into looking at him as he stood from his seat.

"Then we'll have to start figuring out where to fit you in. Uli, Bo, come with me out on the porch for a minute please."

The three walked out onto the porch, but just before Rusl closed the door he gave both Link and Zelda a stern look.

"No eavesdropping the pair of you! I know that you've got good hearing, but this conversation is not for you. If it was, we'd be doing it in here with you two, understand?"

Both nodded and Rusl closed the door. They looked at each other and Zelda released a deep sigh of relief.

"See? That wasn't so bad...was it?"

Link gave a small tight nod and she could see that he was trying hard to not listen to what was being said outside, but both of them knew that the others had to be airing thoughts and concerns about him.

* * *

 **A big Thank You to everyone who Read, Reviewed, Favorited, or Followed this story last chapter!**

ChangelingRin : **I'm glad that you like this even with all you good questions, so I hope that this chapter helped clear some things up for you. :)**

NinjaBrony88891 : ***still eating cookies* Thanks for the cookies! *sprays crumbs because so excited to see you again***

ZeldaPotter29 : **Yo! Thank you for all your awesome editing help, I really** **appreciate i** **t! No overload, I'd love your help should you feel like doing it again. *wink wink* One thing that I will not change is the disconnect between things people say and the actions that they do while speaking, you pointed it out many times and I wanted to let you know that I was doing that on purpose. In my dream dialog had a strangely disconnected feel from everything else, so this is how I'm trying to recreate that feeling...sorry if that doesn't make much sense or if you just think that it seems like a mistake when you read it.**

FCL : **Buddy! *hugs* All with Zelda will be explained in time, and Link, and everything else you have questions about...hopefully. :P I have never worked as a nurse, but that was what I was going for with Zelda's magic and the long tending to wounds part, so thanks! *bows formally* You are amusing and amazing, can't wait to read what you thought of this chapter! Talk to you soon!**

Leave a review and I'll thank you too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	6. 6 Home or Hero?

**Bah!** _ **WHY IS TAKING SO LONG?!**_

 **Hi, everyone.**

 **You may be wondering about the top, so let me explain...No, there is too much, I will summarize. SO. MUCH. HOMEWORK. That and I've been assaulted with so many good ideas to help smooth over some wonky transition/explanation things for this dream story that it's taking a bit longer to write than I thought it would.**

 **Speaking of ideas, FCL gave me a really adorable image/idea for a part in the last chapter that I went back and changed it, so if you're interested in reading that it's the part right before Bo, Uli, Rusl, and Zelda all question Link. Changed it, hope you like it better now because I know I sure do! Thanks FCL! ;)**

 **Enjoy!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...until I invent a time machine that is!**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- a different point in time**

* * *

They had all left, the fire had been bedded for the night, and everyone was sleeping but Link. His shoulders and neck hurt like fire as his body steadily healed itself with a magic that had been his since birth, and while it was a blessing to heal swiftly, there were times that he wished for the much slower healing of everyone else as to not suffer the unnatural pain brought on by his.

He was all alone in the living-room and although he could hear the breathing of Rusl and his wife in the other room, it was still alarmingly quiet. Their boy was sleeping at another's place that night and Zelda slept somewhere else in the village. He growled softly at himself, ears flattening to his head.

He shouldn't have thought of her.

Her voice and bits of the story she had read to him earlier dancing unwantedly through his mind as he tried covering his ears to drown out the ringing silence and her absence. Her voice teased him with stories of a man in green, the kind of man that would never have left the people of the great field suffer as he had when he escaped.

The room seemed darker and larger as he shrank into the sofa beneath him, his thoughts adding to the swirling stream of her voice. Those people out there weren't part of his pack, they didn't want to be. They thought of him as odd to freakish, and had said so while he was near enough to hear them.

Even here in this peaceful village they didn't know how to regard him and stood divided on what to do with him. All because they knew what he was. He gripped the sofa beneath him fiercely, hands balling into tight fists. Even though they had said that it didn't matter, he knew it did and knew no matter how he behaved, they would still see him as a tainted thing.

He clenched his jaw, eyes glistening in the dark as he stared above himself unseeingly.

They didn't see a Hylian, they saw a wolf or a weapon that might be turned loose suddenly without any warning. They didn't see a man who wanted to be like that warrior in green, they saw a danger masquerading as a man and rightly tried to protect themselves. They didn't see him, they saw a monster that is just waiting to hurt them. They saw the differences between themselves and him, and he couldn't do a thing about what they feared in him...

He shifted and turned his head to the sofa back, hiding his face from the biting loneliness of that thought as he growled at himself again. He was fine with just animals, he reminded himself fiercely. Zelda was the only person he wanted to be around. Protecting her and her home should be enough...yet he yearned for her presence.

Time dragged on and sleep laughed at him from the shadows as he tried in vain to catch it, even just to escape himself for a few hours in thoughtless slumber. Stories of heroes, the people around him, the ones who lived beyond the wall, Zelda's voice and himself.

He suddenly decided he'd had enough and snarled in frustration as he cast the blanket off himself and stood in one swift motion. He staggered from the explosion of pain in his arms and only partly managed to stifle his yelp at its intensity when he remembered that there were kind, exhausted people sleeping nearby.

He weakly walked to the locked door and after a few seconds of studying its metal parts, unlocked it and walked out into the night. He closed the door softly and then turned his already adjusted eyes down the hillside towards the village, his mind settled on a course of action.

He stumbled and slipped along until he found the house of the man called Bo and tried the doors, which of course were locked. He searched the space around him with his eyes, then picking up a fishing hook from a nearby tackle box. He brought it up to his face, reshaped the hook carefully in the merger moonlight, and picked the simple door lock.

He opened and closed the door silently and after letting his eyes adjust to the darkness of the house, started slowly exploring. He knew that Zelda lived here with Bo and Ilia because their scents were always faintly present on her when she had come to see him at the spring. All he needed to do was find her room.

He paused outside a door, but continued on without opening it when he heard masculine snores emanating from within. One door lead to the pantry, and he found one that was locked. A quick picking revealed that this was not Zelda's room as he saw a tunic of Ilia's laying in a crumpled heap on the floor as his first sight upon opening of the door. He closed it carefully so not to wake the girl and surveyed the large entrance/eating room again, eyes searching for another door to where Zelda was.

He spotted two freestanding long posts of wood that extended from the floor up to a vanishing point in the ceiling, and curiosity peaked, he walked over to investigate. There were small bars of wood stuck at regular intervals through the posts and after a quick weight supporting test on the lowest one, he started climbing up.

He gritted his teeth against the roaring pain of his body, forcing himself up into the dark until he bumped his head on a small wooden door placed horizontally at the top of the posts. He swayed as a wave of engulfing blackness assaulted all his senses and he would have fall, had he not grabbed a small hand-sized metal ring set in the door above him.

Regaining control of himself, he pushed the small wooden door out of the way with the hand ring to see the room beyond and fought down another wave of leadening dizziness by laying his head down on the room's floor till it passed.

It was another bedroom that was illuminated by a pale silver-green light that was most certainly not the moon outside, so he shakily climbed in to have a better look. His eyes rested on the window ledge over a bed near the wall that held the source of the strange light and gritting his teeth, he haled himself up to walk over.

The light was coming from a strange little mushroom like plant in an oddly shaped bowl, he poked it with a finger and watched in fascination as it gave off glittering blue dust. He poked it a bit harder, eyes following in fascination as the little blue sparks it gave off drifted down towards the bed, lighting sleeping Zelda's face. He sank down onto his knees next to the bed and rested his chin on the edge of the soft springiness of the thing to better watch her face with half closed eyes.

She was breathing deeply, rhythmically, and he tried to make his breathing match hers. His whole head felt so heavy that he slowly scooted his arms and shoulders forward until his entire upper body was resting on the edge of the bed. The deep burn in them caused him to flinch as he moved, but that horrid fire was fading into hot embers as he relaxed being near her.

She shifted and a small smile appeared on her face, causing him to smile sleepily back at her. He was finding it easier and easier to match her breathing, until it was the only thing he could hear as his head lulled to the side.

 **-X-**

Zelda opened her eyes blearily and sat up in bed, mind slowly putting together that there was sunlight coming through her bedside window. She blinked slowly, puzzled as to why she had slept so late...and deeply.

She arched her back, eyes closed, and stretched her arms out above her head while letting loose a deep yawn. She felt so comfortable and relaxed, like the sun was shining down to warm her as a light breeze kissed its way past, or was sitting in front of a fire with a blanket wrapped snugly around her holding gently steaming tea. She lowered her arms with a soft sigh of contentment and felt the fingers of her right hand brush something warm just before they rested on the bedspread.

Her eyes popped open and she turned her head instantly to see with it was, startled blue eyes meeting sleepy ones.

"L-link!"

She squeaked, hands grabbing the blanket that had fallen around her waist and pulled it up the cover her nightgown. He blinked up at her in momentary confusion and tensed away at the sudden movements as he worked past the sleep clouding his thoughts to figure out what was happening. Recognition sparked, and he half-closed his eyes as he relaxed his head back down on his arms and smiled up at her.

Her heart pounded against the clenched hands pressing the blanket to her chest and it gave an extra jolting beat at that smile. She felt that she should be more self conscious, he was staring at her and she was sure that her hair was a mess from sleep, but for some reason his smile put her at ease instead.

"Good morning."

She said as she smiled back, hands relaxing from their death grip on the blanket to a loose hold. She blinked as a sudden thought occurred to her, the smile slipping into a curious look.

"How did you know where to find me? No one has took you on an actual tour of the village yet and you don't even know which house is mine, let alone what room."

He didn't answer right away and looked past her shoulder at the little mushroom-like plant on her windowsill as if to confirm to himself that it really was there before looking back at her face.

"You smell like this place."

There was a beat of silence.

"You found me because of how the house smells?"

She asked with a giggle.

"Well, no one has ever done that before. Normally they just follow the sounds of my poor-"

A hand flew up the her mouth, uncaring that half of the blanket had fallen because of its absence and now revealed her nightgown to his quick glance down at the movement as horrified realisation spread across her face.

"Y-you climbed up to my room! Link, your arms! Why would you do that? Are you alright?"

He had stopped smiling as soon as her expression changed, but he looked quite surprised at her worries.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

She asked, looking at him closely with worried eyes as she leaned closer and he nodded in responce, not moving at all except for that small motion. Her eyes studied his face as he stared back unwaveringly, causing her to blush slightly at her own daring. She gasped, reaching out with her fingers to brush his cheek, but stopped herself before they could actually touch him.

"The cut, it's completely gone! How did you-"

Her stomach growled loudly and he instantly looked down at where the sound came from before looking up at her embarrassed flush.

"Sorry, normally I eat breakfast before now. Are you hungry?"

He nodded again, swallowing thickly as if trying to regain his voice. She smiled hesitantly, then awkwardly climbed off her bed while still trying to hold the blanket over herself. He just kind of watched her and made no move to get up from where he was kneeling with his upper body draped over the side of her bed. She hastily pulled on some clothes on over her nightgown and walked over to the trapdoor and ladder, then looked up at him as she opened it.

"You should stay here and not hurt yourself by climbing back down. I can bring you some food in a minute."

He made no reply and after a few seconds she climbed down into the kitchen. No one was around and she didn't hear anyone else in the house, so she quickly set about making some food.

Eggs were sizzling slightly in the pan when she heard a strange sliding sound from the ladder and she turned her head just fast enough to catch a glimpse of Link reaching the bottom of it. The pain on his face vanished as soon as he looked up and saw her staring at him open-mouthed. He blinked at her and walked over to the table, sitting down on a chair as calmly as if he had just walked in the front door.

She wordlessly turned back to the eggs, finishing cooking them and the rest of their breakfast as she tried formulating her thoughts again. She walked over to the table with a plate in each hand, set them down before pouring them each a large bowl of milk as well before sitting opposite him.

The front door suddenly opened shattering the quiet between them and Zelda spring up from her chair like a startled cat, whirling around to see who was there. Ilia stood in the doorway, her eyes taking in the scene before her as if she had just caught a Talo and co. about to knock clean laundry off the line.

"I thought I'd find you here."

"I-i-i-lia! What are you-"

"I knew that a certain someone was going to be up, Goddesses knows how early, to check on the mystery man. I didn't realize that mystery man would be feeling well enough to vanish and reappear hours later eating breakfast with you though, I thought that he nearly died."

Ilia gave Zelda a stern, pointed look that had Zelda lowering her head guiltily before she even realised what she was doing. She saw Link shift forward towards standing as soon as she started lowering her head and that attracted Ilia's attention to him.

"So, Mystery Man, my name's Ilia."

She stuck out her hand to him.

"I know."

He replied neutrally, standing up to his full height and staring down at her hand while making no move to take it. Ilia left her hand out to him, but a small frown formed and she started puffing out her cheeks.

"What's _your_ name then?"

He looked up from her hand and just stared at her face evaluatively for a few long moments. A few moments grew into a few more, he didn't look like he was going to answer and the ever growing annoyance on Ilia's face said that she was getting tired of waiting. Time ticked by and lightning started crackled from Ilia as they waited to see who could outlast who.

"His name is Link."

Both her friends heads snapped their heads over to look her with different expressions: Ilia's was a clear message of "he can answer for himself, Zelda." and Link's was surprise mixed with a strange kind of acceptance; like he was surprised that she answered but if she trusted Ilia than it was fine.

Zelda tittered nervously as they stared at her and started twisting part of her skirt between her fingers, Link's eyes flashing down to the movement before returning to her face.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have said anything. But I want you two to be friends and it seemed like you were starting off poorly."

Ilia's face softened and with hands on hips she turned back to Link, who looked at her as she moved.

"Link, eh? A bit of a weird name, but we can roll with it. And I guess that I understand you not wanting to shake hands given those injuries you're sporting. So, what are some things you like, Link?"

He blinked, a bit surprised by the sudden change and Zelda could see reservation lurking in his eyes, as if he was wondering what Ilia would do with the information he revealed.

"Animals."

He answered finally.

"Uh-huh, what kinds of animals?"

"All different kinds."

"Uh-huh, do you like goats? We have a bunch of goats that belong to the village and I work with them, so I could take you to see them if you're interested. When you're all better, of course."

"You could even meet Sera's cat and Talo's dog."

Zelda said with a smile that she hoped conveyed to him that it was alright to talk about himself, they wouldn't do anything to him because they were his friends.

"Yeah, it takes them awhile to warm up to new people, but I think that you'll do just fine dealing with that particular problem. The whole 'getting people to warm up to you and talking freely with them' thing seems to be an area of expertise of yours there, Link, so you should have absolutely no problems at all with them."

Ilia added sarcastically. Eyes strangely hard again, causing Zelda's smile to falter slightly.

 **-X-**

"It was quite a surprise to wake up and find him there in my room, but he looked so relaxed and peaceful despite all the pain he must have been in...I couldn't make myself tell him to leave and had to get ready for the day with him there, but I'm getting quite good at it now so it isn't a problem."

Both Zelda and Uli were snapped and dividing their way through a huge basket of pea pods that was that vegetable's yield of the yearly harvest. Uli had mentally appointed Zelda as Link's primary caregiver because she was the only one that he was entirely honest with. The poor boy tried hiding his pain when asked about it and would only give vague answers at best, if he even answered at all.

He wasn't sure if he really trusted them yet, which Uli understood, but saddened her nonetheless.

She looked over at the brown haired girl at her right just as a bit of wind stirred the girl's long hair so it shimmered in the hazy sunlight; Zelda was the only exception. Not that he wouldn't try to hide it from her as well, but the difference was that he would eventually relent and tell her what she wanted to know when she turned persistent about it. She was special; he was beginning to understand that she really did care for him and was not going to exploit his trust in her.

Uli smiled lightly just as Zelda looked up at her, and the girl blinked.

"What is it, Uli?"

Uli looked back down at the pea pods she was cracking with the smile still on her face.

"Oh, nothing. What did he do when he woke up?"

"Well, he looked really sleepy and didn't quite look like he remembered where he was. I managed a "Good morning" to him, despite my embarrassment and the fact that it was barely morning anymore, and he just kind of smiled at me. His confusion vanished and he didn't look like he cared about whatever his thoughts had been."

Another small smile from the older woman.

"I see. I can imagine that this awakening was quite a surprise for both of you, in different ways perhaps, but surprising nonetheless. How did you explain your long absence to Bo and Ilia? Surely they wondered where you were and part of me is amazed that Ilia didn't barge in to check on you when you didn't appear first thing like you usually do."

"I am too sort of, but when I did go down to eat something and she appeared, my seeming exhaustion was explained to me. She said that I had just had too much excitement the past two days because I never do anything out of the ordinary aside from reading that exasperating green book of mine, so all this as just too great a shock to my system and I needed extra rest. That's why she gave strict orders against anyone waking me."

Uli laughed.

"That does sound like her alright, explaining to the healer why she slept late. Her heart's in the right place, bless her."

Zelda nodded with a fond smile as she stared down at her work. Uli looked at her carefully before choosing her approach to this delicate conversation she would start.

"Link's never asleep on the sofa when I or Rusl get up in the mornings, so I gather that he's been going to sleep in your room every night?"

The smile vanished and Zelda tensed ever so slightly at the turn of the conversation.

"Y-y-yes, but we never do anything and he leaves soon after he wakes. He just comes there to fall asleep on my rug and never even lets me know when he arrives, I just wake up to find him there...After I realized that he was going to keep doing this, I put down a pillow and blanket for him to use, but I think he's just been sleeping on the blanket and maybe is kind of using the pillow?...I don't really know if he fully understands what it is. I mean, it sounds strange to say, but thinking about it logically, I guess that maybe it's not that strange as I bet that he hasn't really ever used one before. I mean, I've never asked him if he has, I've just kind of assumed-."

She was rambling and they both knew it, so Uli gently cut her off.

"I'm guessing that you haven't told anyone else about these staying-overs, have you?"

There was a long pause from Zelda before the girl gave a sad sigh and her ears drooped unhappily.

"No. They just wouldn't understand how nervous and vulnerable he feels here...and some of their minds would instantly go to that we were, -" She shifted uncomfortably. "-doing inappropriate things..."

"Which you aren't."

Zelda stopped her work and looked at Uli.

"You-you don't think that we would be doing anything like that...d-do you?"

Uli smile comfortingly at Zelda and shook her head.

"No, no. I think that you both quite grownup and can behave as such when alone with each other."

Zelda colored slightly, but relief was clearly evidenced on her face as she went back to snapping peas. The sounds of faint children's laughter and rowdy shouts drifted up to them on the breeze as the silence stretched comfortably between them.

"How's he healing? Because I think I saw him carrying a barrel or something this morning and the size of it nearly gave me a heartattack."

"I know! I told him to take it easy, but he's healing so quickly that I'm not sure what to think. He's gone from horrible pain to almost entirely healed shoulders and arms in only a week! I'm sure that all the poultices and such have helped, but he shouldn't be recovering this quickly."

"It is remarkable, I wonder if it's a Sheika thing or if it has something to do with the curse?"

Uli set aside a completely dried out pea pod with shriveled seeds into the small pail on her left.

"While you think of your answer, I know that Sera told the children to pick anything that looked edible, but I don't think that this is what she had in mind."

She held up another shriveled pod while shaking her head at it and the children's attempt at doing their jobs. Zelda giggled and shook her head too.

"Sillies. I'm not sure, but I don't think his healing has anything to do with the curse. It feels more like it's part of him, not something forced on him...to me anyway."

As if summoned by all their talking about him, Link suddenly came sprinted around a house and raced over to them as if his life depended on it.

"Link, wha-"

Zelda started to ask, but he just slid around her and threw himself down on the ground behind the two women and large basket. Zelda twisted around to look questioningly at his wide sparkling eyes and flushed, panting face. She opened her mouth to ask again, but whipped back around as the children's voices grew louder and she saw the whole mob of them run into sight.

They all stopped, looked around while excitedly yelling about something, and upon not seeing what they were looking for, came thundering towards the two women.

"Have you seen Link?!"

Talo asked as the group stopped several paces away, all of them looking like they had run from the forest gate to Goat's Field: flushed with hair-sticking sweatily to their faces and necks as they stood on bouncy legs.

"Why are you looking for him?"

Uli asked laughingly as she surveyed them.

"So that we can fight and play with him properly now that Mayor Bo is busy. He's been watching us do stuff with Link ever since he first showed up last week, and we've only been allowed to play boring games with Link because of it!"

"Well, Link has been injured and all of you hanging off him might have made his injuries worse."

"Yeah, yeah, we know. But no touching him at all?! He's all better now and there's only so many games that are no touching and they're all boring!"

"After a while they get boring, she means."

Colin added hastily as he saw his mother's eyebrow arch, and Beth gave him a stern look for daring to interrupt her flow before Talo continued.

"Now that he's mostly better and Mayor Bo can't watch because of something Ilia did, we can have some real fun! So have you seen him?"

Zelda could feel Link's warm, quick breaths on the small of her back and it was caused strange tingles to jump through her, with goosebumps rising on her arms and neck despite the heat of the day.

"I saw him over by that house a few seconds ago."

Zelda spoke up, pointing off back in the direction they had all come from.

"What?! But we were just over there, how could he be there?!"

"He's pretty slippery from what I hear, like a fish trying to avoid one of your fishing nets. I think you'd better go by what Zelda said and try to retrace your steps to find him."

Uli chimed in as Talo gave Zelda a scrutinizing look as though trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth; but when her face didn't change after a minute of this staring he turned to the other kids.

"I bet he's hiding either down by the lake or up in Goat's Field somewhere. Come on gang, let's go find him!"

Talo led the charge away towards goat's field and after the dust had settled in their wake, Link sat up next to Zelda. He was sitting so close to her that she felt his arm brush hers as he shifted to give her a slightly smile in thanks.

"Why were you hiding from them?"

Uli asked curiously from his left side as his eyes went down to watching Zelda's hands snapping pea pods.

"I didn't feel like fighting."

He replied after a few long seconds.

"Well that's a good reason. Has Bo been keeping as close an eye on you interacting with them as the children say?"

Link nodded absentmindedly, his focus on the breaking pods.

"He says I shouldn't be walking, much less playing with your kids. Dark magics, skulking killer, transmitting things..."

Uli sighed angrily, muttering unhappily to herself as she snapped the pods in double time. Zelda could see Link's head hovering over her shoulder out of the corner of her eye and she smiled as it reminded her of when he was a wolf at the spring.

"Would you like to help me?"

Zelda asked him as he continued to stare down at her hands and he nodded instantly; picking up a pod and imitating how she broke it to collect the peas. Zelda scooted around slightly so that he could reach the bowl she had been setting the peas in without having to reach across her, but tried to not move herself away from him as she did.

Uli gave up her dark mutterings to sighed heavily as she pulled out another handful of the small, very dry pea pods and started cracking them.

"It needs to rain soon or this will be the worst fall harvest yet."

Link peered up at the sky while still snapping pods and Zelda smiled at Uli.

"I'm sure it will soon. It is that time of season when we get a nice rainfall to fatten the pumpkins and goats before it starting getting cold."

"Yes, but we've had less and less every year and the last rain we had was that really heavy one two weeks ago. We haven't had as much as we had last year and it may not-"

She cut herself off with a swift look at Link and Zelda, who were watching her, and changed her worried expression to a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I'm sorry, you're right, Zelda. I'm sure that the Goddesses will sent us what we need, don't worry about it."

* * *

 **A big Thank You to everyone who read, reviewed, favored, or followed this story last chapter!**

ChanglingRin : **You're like my straight-and-narrow keeper. Which I need desperately because when I start to slide, you give a little whistle! :) I love hearing anything you have to say about this story, so don't be shy or a stranger! Sorry if I'm not making much sense, it's like crazy late/early here while I'm posting this. Just PM me if you're confused, have a question that you forgot to put in your next review, or just want to chat.**

ZeldaPotter29 : **Thanks again for your help and I hope that you've adjusted to your new classes challenge ratings. High school seems tough, but I know that you'll get through beautifully! And please, get carried away when writing your review! It makes this that much more entertaining to read ;) and if you ever need to talk about something, please feel free to PM me. You've help me with so much that I want to help you should you need it, k?**

FCL : **Ah, the heroine of the last chapter! I really don't know what to say...me, a genus? Your review was too wonderful and heartwarming and beautiful and...and...I don't really have any other words to describe it. Thank you, my friend. I hope that you like hugs because you're about to get a really big one! *hugs***

Leave a review and I'll thank you too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	7. 7 Dungeon Map

**Happy New Year, my dear Readers!**

 **There have been a lot of new readers to this story since I posted the last chapter, so Yay! and Welcome to the story peeps! For all those who have been reading since the beginning, I thank you; and for all those who have left reviews, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! Those have helped me so much in writing this story that I wish I could give you all a big warm hug! *hugs* Have cookies too and may God bless you all with a wonderful year! (even if you don't believe he exists, I love you all!)**

 **Enjoy the first chapter I've posted in a year! (lame joke, I know.)**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...unless they are all willed to me by their rightful owners and I just have no idea!**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- different point of view**

 _Thoughts_

* * *

Zelda hummed happily to herself as she peeled an apple, swishing her skirt as she swayed her hips in a little dance to the beat of a song that she could remember faintly.

"Mmmm, hmm, mm. Du-du-duuu, hmm, mm. Buuuu-du-du, mm, mm, mm, hu-mmm."

The melody repeated itself over and over in her head and she gladly sang along. It made her feel safe and warm, which was appropriate because today was the first day after the week long apple harvest that she had enough time to do something that could only happen during this specific time of year: making fresh apple pies. She loved cooking and while everyone in the village knew how to make apple pies, they all said hers were the best.

Link had worked especially hard on this harvest and while everyone seemed to think that it was merely because he has fully healed now, Zelda thought that he was really trying to make up for all the care that they had given him. He had clearly eaten apples before though and she had seen him sneak one or two to eat during breaks throughout the week, munching on them up in trees or tucked away in some tall grass where it was hard to spot him.

She doubted that anyone else knew about these snacks because even Mayor Bo had found nothing to complain about in Link's helpful and hardworking behavior in the harvest. It wasn't for Bo's lack of trying as he still did some complaining, but it was about old problems he had with Link.

She was about halfway done peeling the apple when she felt a shoulder brush hers, and a piece of apple that she had already peeled and cut was out of the bowl in front of her before she could react. Surprised from her thoughts, she jumped and seeing who it was, blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Link! That's for my pie!"

He paused with the fruit bit hovering just outside his open mouth and stared sideways at her, waiting to see what she'd do. Ears burning from the last not-so-intelligent-thing she had just said, she couldn't make herself look into his deep blue eyes and stared instead at his blue earring.

"Put it back please."

He didn't move and she waited a few seconds to see if he would do as she asked. After he didn't move for another few seconds, she set the knife down on the counter next the the apple she had been peeling and turning to fully face him. He looked quite comical standing there, frozen in the act of eating the apple and she had to fight hard to not let loose any giggles at the sight.

His eyes had an extra glint of light in them as she held out her hand, and that light grew as he saw her struggle to keep a straight face.

"Give me that please."

He looked down at her open hand and then back to her eyes, a serious expression on his face, but mischief now glittering his eyes.

He extended his arm to place the apple piece onto her hand, but pulled the bit just out of her reach as she went to close her fingers around it. She blinked at him and again tried to take the apple piece from his hand, only to have him pull it just out of reach as he did before. He was smiling slightly, but she could tell that he was watching her face closely. Instead of getting mad, she felt giggles welling up inside and adopted a playfully indignant expression.

"Hey! Link, give it to me!"

She lunged at the apple and he smoothly backed up three steps so that the apple stayed the same distance from her hand as it had been before she had lunged.

"Give me it, Link!"

She demanded as a little giggle slid out of her mouth, perfectly ruining her attempt at a threatening tone and the grin on his face widened as he evaded her again. He didn't seem to care about how she was talking to him, he didn't care if it sounded rude and for once neither did she. He spun and leaned out of her reach as she twisted and dove after the apple, her sounds of laughter filling the empty room around them.

She kept up her large lunges so that he really had to move to avoid her, not seeing that she was carefully driving him into a corner until he was practically in it. He glanced at the walls of the counter and looked back at the gleam of triumph in Zelda's eyes as she closed in for the apple. He spun around so his back was facing her, but before she could even contemplate what he was doing, he had run up the wall two steps, flipped backwards over her whole body and had landed right behind her.

She froze in surprise and then gasped as his muscular arms wrapped around her, pinned her arms to her sides. His head appeared over her shoulder so she could see his broadly smiling face and he could see hers, then he lifted his hand up till the apple bit was clearly visible.

"Why you!"

She exclaimed laughingly as she struggled to break free from his strong, yet gentle grasp to get the apple. She realised that he was too strong for her to break out of his arms and started trying to kick him, not too hard, but just enough to let him know that she hadn't given up quite yet.

"That's cheating! Running up walls is no fair, Link!"

She got him once on the side of his calf before he hooked her leg with his and used her skirt to trap her legs together, effectively stopping her from being able to kick him.

Struggling to get free and to catch her breath because of all her helpless giggling, Zelda was completely trapped and she knew it. But she didn't feel trapped and she was only halfheartedly fighting his hold now that she had used all her air for laughing. She felt warm and happy, she-

"What in Din's name are you two doing?!"

Ilia's voice from the doorway caused them both to look over, Zelda's laughter dying in her throat at the scandalized expression on her friend's face.

"I-Ilia!"

"What are you two doing?!"

Ilia asked again in an even louder voice and Zelda was suddenly very aware of how closely intertwined she and Link were.

"Link, please let me go."

She whispered as her ears burned under Ilia's wide eyed gaze and he let her go as soon as she asked, even helping to untangle her skirt from their legs as she attempted to redeem the situation in her friend's eyes.

"We were just goofing around, Ilia. I had been working on making a pie and-"

"I need to talk with you."

Ilia interrupted, marching over and grabbing onto Zelda's arm.

"Of-of course, Ilia! Let me just-"

"No, now Zel."

Ilia practically dragged Zelda towards the front door she had just entered through, with Zelda giving Link a pleading look to not interfere as he made to stop Ilia the instant she had grabbed Zelda. He restrained himself, but held a strange look in his eyes as he watched them walk to the door.

"And you!"

Ilia barked, turning around to lean back through the doorway at him.

"Stay. Here."

She held up a stopping hand and then pointed down to the ground with a single finger like she was talking to Talo's dog.

"Got it? Don't you dare follow us!"

And with that, she slammed the door closed. She walked Zelda over to the path that led to the Sacred Spring and didn't stop marching until the sand surrounding the pool crunched loudly beneath their feet. She released Zelda's arm and turned to face her, eyes blazing with anger and worry.

"What do you think you were doing, Zel?!"

"I'm-I'm sorry Ilia, but we were just goofing around like I sai-"

"Do you have any idea what you looked like? What if I had been my Father instead of _your best friend_ who opened the door on you two back there, huh?!"

"I-I, I don't-"

"You don't what, Zel? If that _had_ been my Father, he would have been yelling at you two in a heartbeat! He'd have been so furious that he would have banned that boy from the house and would be telling everyone about what he thought he walked in on. They would believe him too, even Rusl and Uli would have been outraged at the way my father would tell it, and then it would end with kicking that boy out of the village for good like he sh-"

"We weren't doing anything!"

Zelda yelled, cutting Ilia off mid-word and leaving shocked expressions on both of their faces. She had never yelled at Ilia before and certainly never while interrupting her, because Zelda never yelled or interrupted anyone.

"He- he didn't do anything to me, I swear, Ilia. We were playing, I was just trying to get the apple bit back and it kind of-"

"It didn't look like you were just playing,"

Ilia said, looking away.

"-not with how close you two were standing."

"But we were! I was just-"

"He's always standing too close to you, Zel."

Zelda paused and furrowed her brows in confusion.

"W-what? I must not have heard yo-"

"He's always standing too close to you, Zel. He had no respect for your personal space and is constantly brushing or bumping up against you."

"I-I- Is he?"

Zelda said, lowering her eyes and shifting uncomfortably at this sudden new direction the conversation was taking. She saw Ilia legs step closer and felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder.

"I think that you should stay away from him, Zel. I'm really...worried about you hanging around him and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Zelda blinked and looked at Ilia hesitantly.

"W-what do you mean, you're worried about something happening to me?"

"Well, you can't deny that he's a bit of a freak."

"Ilia!"

Zelda gasped, hand flying up to her mouth as her eyes grew wide.

"Well, it's true. I've been watching him and besides seeming to have no concept of personal space, he's constantly staring at people. Doesn't he understand that that's incredibly rude and creepy? And he does it all the time, to everyone!"

Zelda was speechless for a few seconds, just staring at a clearly waiting Ilia until she found her voice again.

"Ilia please, this isn't very kind of you. He doesn't really know anyone, but I know he is trying and genuinely wants to become closer to everyone. He even-"

"Zel, he barely talks to anyone and when he does it's always in a simple, short manner, like he _doesn't_ want to be talking to them."

"He's not used to talking to people all the time, Ilia, because when he was working on the wall, I don't think that-"

Zelda clapped a hand over her open mouth, horrified.

"..I wasn't supposed to say anything."

Ilia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"I already knew about all that stuff about him. Do you really think that my father could keep something that big from me? A few well placed worried words here and a casually voiced question while he's distracted there, and then all I have to do is piece it together."

"...Why are you saying these things about Link if you know about what he's been through? How is that fai-"

"Because it's no excuse for the way he has been behaving towards you, or anyone else for that matter! Whatever happened to him before is over and nothing bad is happening to him here, so why is he always seeking to be right beside you?! Why not have me be honest with my best friend and let her know exactly what I see in how he's behaving?"

"...And what do you see, Ilia?"

Zelda asked in a small, strangled voice after a few long seconds.

"I see that my completely inexperienced with boys best friend, who is also a renowned bleedingheart, is in danger of becoming... _infatuated_ with a complete stranger! A uncivilized, cursed, shapeshifting stranger who is undoubtedly the most dangerous thing that has ever been brought into this village! And don't you dare say that he isn't because if he deciding to do something to you, do you think that there's anyone here who could stop him? He killed eight well armed and trained Bulblins with his bare hands and teeth, so what do you think a couple of unarmed and inexperienced villagers are going to be able to do to him?! Huh!? Rusl is the only one here who has been trained for combat and my father is a big guy who may have also has some training back in the day, but do you think that they could have beat those Bulblins by themselves? I don't; and that makes that boy some kind of freakish monster to have been able to do what he did-"

Zelda was shaking her head and looked on the verge of tears, hands up to try to simultaneously plug her ears and brush away the liquid from her eyes before it could fall.

"S-stop! You- you're wrong, Ilia. He would never hurt me, or you, or anyone here in the village. Be he in a wolf form or not. What he did to the Bulblins he did to save us from being attacked by them. I- I know that he cares about all of us, he just has some trouble showing like you and I do because of what happened to him before he came here. And he's not a monster, why would you even say that?! He's been hurt because of that fear of his curse, hurt by a thing that he had no control over having but can control when it forces him into a wolf. I-I know that he behaves a little strangely, but does that make him so dangerous that we can't even treat him well or become his friends? I can see that he's trying to change to fit how we live here because he can tell how his behavior affects us, but he's still always kind to us despite how we feel about him and his own struggle to let himself trust us."

She looked down again, amazed at herself and wondering where these words and feelings were coming from as she twisted the cloth of her skirt in her hands before quietly going on.

"I'd like to hope that if people had forced me to work on a huge wall and chained me up that I could still be as kind as he is. Isn't that what's important, that he tries his hardest and truly cares?"

"..Nobody would ever chain you up, Zel, there's nothing wrong with you. And as for what you said, it- it definitely counts for something, but only behaves a little strangely? I saw him snarl at Fido the other day, _snarl_ Zel, actually snarl like a wild animal just because Fido was coming out of his house as that boy was passing."

"I didn't heard about that. Are you sure that there couldn't have been some reason as to why he-"

"It happened sometime in the morning of the second day that that boy was allowed to go around the village, but regardless that's not normal, Zel. He also walks into everyone's houses whenever he feels like and just messes around with things that catch his eye without asking. But you know, Goddesses forbid if you shut him in a room by mistake. He's over by that door and throwing it open like you were going to lock him up in there or something, staring at you like you're the crazy one! He's like some kind of once domesticated animal that's gone wild, then was captured and brought back to live with people again. You'd think that he would at least look like he'd fit in, but every little thing he does just seems to add to the fact that he doesn't."

"Oh Ilia, don't say that! There must be a reason as to why he did that thing to Fido and saying that he won't fit in is so unkind because he's trying to!"

"So you say, but mightn't the reason perhaps be that all his time experiencing... _whatever_ has messed him up inside and now he can't fit in with normal people? After all, isn't that what the curse on the Sheikah is supposed to do? Make it so that they can't hide with normal people?"

There was something strange in Ilia's eyes, a distanced cold like she was talking about how to deal with rats in the goats barn. It was Ilia's words that struck the warning bell somewhere inside Zelda though as old fears and worries started slipping up to whisper to her horrified mind.

"I-I think that's what Rusl said was the reason for it, y-yes?"

"So doesn't it stand to reason that the curse would do more to them then just curse them into a scary form every once and awhile?"

"I-I guess..."

"So then there might be things that the curse might make him do that would be unpredictable or dangerous even."

"I- I suppose.."

She looked at Ilia with pleading eyes.

"But he would never hurt me! You've got to-"

"How do you know that?"

"He-"

"How do you know?"

Zelda froze at her friend's forceful tone, her eyes still pleading but were now becoming tainted with confusion.

"He-he never has before and he's had opportunities...he's never seemed angry at me for anything, even though I'm sure I have made lots of mistakes. But Ilia how does one prove they kno-"

"Surprisingly, I don't think you have made that many, Zel. I think you only feel that way because you were unsure how to act given his weird behavior, it's nothing wrong with you, trust me."

Zelda looked away from Ilia, she could feel something stealing over her like the shadow of a cloud blocking out the Sun's rays. She didn't know what it was, but she started feeling afraid even though she was in the one place that she had never truly felt afraid in before. Link liked it here too, he always came here to meet her even as a wolf.

"But he really liked it here at the spring, Ilia, and because it's blessed he must be of good character to like being here. Evil can't stand being here because of the feel of it, so he can't be bad at all because even the curse didn't stop him from wanting to be here and that means he is good...right?"

"Well, Zel, I can tell you that I've never felt anything special about the air or water here or whatever. So you might not want to base your judgement of character on how being here affects people, maybe judge it based off something like, oh I don't know, _how they behave_. Afterall, they can help that and it's something in their control."

"But people can't always help how they behave."

Zelda replied in a small voice as the dark deepened.

"But they can most of the time though, so I think that it's still a pretty solid way of going about deciding this."

Zelda didn't reply this time and after a few long seconds Ilia pulled her into a tight hug.

"Hey, I'm not doing this to be mean to him or anything, I'm just worried about you and don't want you to do anything stupid or let him take advantage of you. Just promise me that you'll think about what I've said and not let him do whatever he wants like you have been, alright? You may view him as a friend, but you don't really know anything about him so keep your distance until he starts behaving normal, ok?"

"I...understand, Ilia."

Ilia released her from the hug and beamed at her.

"Great! Now that that's over with, I think that we can go back to our day. Lots to do and think about before we hit the hay tonight, so I'll see you at dinner later, Zel!"

"Bye, see you later, Ilia."

Zelda said quietly to her friend's retreating back as Ilia raced down the path towards the village. Zelda moved slowly after her as she tried to reason out what she should do, she was scared and she didn't want to leave the spring but at the same time couldn't bear to stay. So she walked back towards the village slowly, mentally struggling with what had just happened and didn't even really see any of her surroundings until she nearly walked straight into the front door of the home she shared.

She hesitated as she went to open the door, terrified that the thoughts of Ilia's might be more objective about Link than hers...A soft breeze pushed her towards the door, blowing her hair and skirt with guiding hands until she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Link had been staring at the solid wood as she pushed it out of her way, no doubt having heard her outside, and gave her a quick assessing look before grinning from where he stood at the counter she had been cutting the apples.

"Link, what have you been doing to my apples? Did you ea- Oh!"

He stepped out of the way so that she could see the apples were all sitting neatly in their bowl, completely peeled and cut for the pie.

He walked over to her and held out something to her on his right hand, still smiling slightly as he did. Tears sprang to her eyes and a trembling happy smile spread across her face as she stared down at the fruit bit she saw resting there. She slowly took the bit from his proffered hand and continued staring at it as her mind sped through her conversation with Ilia.

Guilt, sadness, hope, and a sudden peace flashing through her till they were all replaced with something lighter than happiness yet stronger than steel, and she closed her hand gently around the apple. Clasping both hands in front of her chest to hold in her swelling heart, she lifted her face to smile at him.

"T-thank you."

 **-X-**

Creeping through the quiet house to Zelda's high room after night had fallen and everyone had gone into their respective dennings for sleep was far more difficult since Ilia had walked in on their playing around yesterday. She had taken to staying up late, checking locks on the windows and doors before bed, but the most troublesome by far for Link was that she started leaving her door open as to hear when Zelda came down the ladder in the morning.

The ladder creaked when one went up or down it, so he had to close Ilia's door before going up and then had to open it again before he left in the morning.

He didn't want there to be anymore trouble between Zelda and her, but Ilia was mistaken if she thought that he was going to stop seeing Zelda just because she didn't like him. Ilia's door now closed he crossed over to the ladder and climbed up to the little door at the top. He pushed it open to see warm lantern light dancing on the walls and upon fully entering the room found Zelda sitting on the floor with her back against the side of her bed, head bent over a familiar green-covered book.

He froze, not quite knowing what to do as Zelda had never been awake when he arrived before. She looked up after a few seconds and smiled at him.

"Hi, Link. I know I'm not normally awake when you get here, but I just finished translating a whole entry and was about to read it...Do you want to hear it?"

He nodded and taking this as an invitation to continue, he climbed into the room and took a seat next to her by the bed. She cleared her throat and begin reading in her soft voice...

 _"History was a tad boring today due to it being about the original treaty with the Zora. I told my teacher that we had already covered this and even had the notes to prove it, yet she insisted that we had not covered it in enough detail and then proceed to give me the same lesson that I remember having before. I think perhaps she doesn't truly believe that a ten year old such as myself could remember these important things about how we created the alliances and peace that Hyrule has. She seems to feel that she must repeat the important points until they have been hammered into my mind by mere repetition._

 _I do understand how these alliances were forged. Despite this, I tried my best to focus on the lesson out of respect for this teacher, but my mind wandered of its own accord back to my dream. Then a funny thing happened, my triforce symbol glowed slightly. At first I thought it a trick of the sunlight through the windows, but no. It was truly glowing itself and I could faintly make out the two other parts of the triforce on the back of my hand._

 _I raised my other hand, interrupting my teacher midflow, and asked about the historical trifecta of the Triforce. She didn't even close the book she had been reading from, simply looking over the top of it at me as she answered._

 _"In times of great danger to Hyrule the two other parts of the Triforce would appear. Now if we could return to the signing of the great-"_

 _I raised my hand again, determined to get real answers._

 _"Why do the Triforces of Power and Courage appear only in those times of danger, but the Triforce of Wisdom is in every generation of Hyrule's leaders?"_

 _She inserted a marker and closed the book with a thump before looking at me with her undivided displeasure at the interruption to the planned lesson._

 _"Hylians are the Goddesses carefully crafted people and the place of our chosen kingdom is where we feel the strongest connection to their holy power. Legend tells us that the guardian Goddess Hylia marks the true leader of Hylians, and all races that came about after them, with the gift that is most needed to rule: Wisdom. Therefore, your Highness has the the right to rule because of your marking of wisdom, but knowledge is needed to have true wisdom so if we could kindly return to page 235-"_

 _"Would not Courage and Power also be needed to rule? Courage is needed to stand up for what you believe is right and to not back down even under pressure, while Power is a core aspect of might and is needed to get things done, correct?"_

 _"While simplistically correct, that is not how it works in reality, your Highness. If Power or Courage were the most important aspects of what would be needed to rule, than Tyrants would become kings as well as Fools. No, the power to rule is maintained through intelligent political maneuvering and the support of your people; likewise courage is too akin to arrogance, rashness, and stupidity to be of any real service to a ruler. If one has the support and confidence of the people, then one should never have to worry about such things as you said."_

 _"If that were so, then why are there times that this fails and the other two parts are needed?"_

 _I knew it was rude of me to say such things, and I could tell that it was taken as rude by the way her eyes flashed as she stared at me over her glasses._

 _"It is not that this prime method of ruling is flawed, as your Highness may have been hoping to claim, but that in these instances you speak of external forces of another Triforce having disrupted this balance."_

 _"Why is the Triforce of Power always bore by a foreigner if we Hylians are the Goddesses favored people?"_

 _"The Goddesses wills are often mysterious to us and there is no certain way of knowing, however, the Gerudo of the desert only worship Din and seem to despise what they view as the weakness of the other two. This makes a higher devotional rate to Din, the giver of Power, among the Gerudo than among us Hylians who worship all three Goddesses because of the balance that they brought by working together."_

 _"If Courage is not really needed by a ruler, then why is there a whole section of the Triforce devoted to it?"_

 _Her nostrils flared a bit at this question, but I am not really sure as to why._

 _"Courage is the most ambiguous of the three parts of the Triforce, as was Farore the most ambiguous in her contribution to creation. Courage is needed far less than Knowledge because courage without wisdom or intelligence is heavily prone championing poor causes. Knowledge is the key to true power and you have been blessed with the greatest of the pieces of the Triforce. Now, unless you have anymore important questions, we shall return to page-"_

 _"Actually I do, Professor, why does the Triforce of Wisdom only ever come to women? I have met and read about men that have been very wise, but it is always a woman that has the Triforce of Wisdom and rules the kingdom. It even appears in a house other than that of the old royal family if there are no worthy women among them, changing the noble class positionings several times in history."_

 _"It is good to see that you pay attention to at least part of your kingdom's long history, and the simple answer is that men are not capable of having true wisdom."_

 _"How is that possible? They make up half the population of Hylians."_

 _"They are too swift to fight without thinking of the consequences, too prone to deciding what is theirs and how to take what they want if it is not. Wisdom is to have perspective on matters, both big and small, and that is a skill that only women have seemed able to possess in great quantities according to the goddess who gives this power."_

A door suddenly slammed below, causing them both to jump and Zelda to drop the book. There was a violent rattle of the ladder shaking accompanied by a loud "Zelda!" that had her scrambling over to the trap door. She opened the small door and looked down at Ilia, who he was sure was standing at the foot of the ladder.

"Yes, Ilia?"

"Why are you still awake, girl?! Do you have any idea of how late it is?!"

"I'm sorry. I got lost in translating part of my Past book and just completely missed-"

"Oh, not that book again, Zel! Your sleep is way more important than anything that's in that book."

"Well, I-"

"Who were you talking to just now anyway?"

"N-no one, Ilia. I just finished translating that part and was just reading it out loud. Did I wake you, Ilia?"

There was a long silence from below and Link was sure it was because Ilia was trying to tell if Zelda was lying or not.

He reached out and picked up the green Past book with a finger inserted onto the place that it had fallen open to. He flipped it over as conversation resumed between the girls, but instead of seeing Hylian lettering like he had expected he saw a drawing. It took up two whole pages and was extremely detailed, but detailing of what he didn't know. He heard the trap door close and a few seconds later Zelda took her seat beside him again, looking down at the open book in his hands.

"Oh you found the map."

"Map?"

"Yes, this is a map of what was once Hyrule. This is the key that tells us what direction is what, North, South, East, West, and the sub directions are the smaller points between them. We're here right now."

She tapped a finger tip to a tiny black dot on the very southernmost edge of the map where a huge light area started melding into darker shadings.

"Why is it darker around us?"

"That's the representation of trees, these dark squiggles. It shows that we're in a forest."

"What about this lighter area here?"

He tapped a finger against the large light area.

"That was once Hyrule Field, but I don't know what it's called now that Hyrule doesn't exist anymore."

"Gannon's Plain."

He said in a quiet voice, eyes fixated on a small black squiggly line right along the edge where forest met flatland. He pointed to it and saw her shift uncomfortably out of the corner of his eye.

"That's how much of the wall they've put up, Link...I listened carefully to when Rusl was telling Uli or Bo about where it was, how long, and such, then plotted it out on the map the next chance I got. I'm sorry."

He was staring in horror at the map, not because the wall was there, but because of how small it was compared to the rest of the Field. _So many people... Just in this one place..._ Zelda's words registered and he looked up at her with his normal expression.

"Don't apologize, you did nothing wrong."

She blinked back at him a couple times and then looked down with a reddening of her cheeks. He stared at her for a few more seconds, wondering what he had done and then looked down at the map again.

"What's this?"

"Faron Woods, they're to the northeast of us."

 _Even more people..._

"There?"

"Goron Mountains, that biggest one is called Death Mountain."

"What are Goron?"

"They are a large, tough-skinned people that only live there in the mountains. They are supposedly very heavy, are much bigger than you and I, and eat rocks."

His eyes widened and he looked up from the book to her eyes.

"Rocks? And they still Hylian?"

She started giggling and pressed a hand over her mouth to muffle them before answering.

"No, Silly. They're not Hylians, the Gonon are something completely different and that's why they can eat rocks."

He looked back down at the book and mentally added more people.

"Here?"

"Lake Hylia, I don't really know much about there though."

"Here?"

"Zora's Domain."

"Zora?"

"Another race that are not Hylian. They can breathe both air and water, are normally silvery blue to match the waters they live in, and were the guardians of Hyrule's waterways. I don't know if they still do that or not now though."

He was starting to feel slightly sick as he pointed to another place on the map.

"Those are the northern mountains and I think that those were also the Zora's? I don't know for certain."

"Here?"

"That's Gerudo's Desert, I don't really know much about there either."

He didn't want to know more about that place or its people, and a small part of him was happy that Zelda and this village didn't know much about these things.

"Here?"

"That's the old Castle Town, but when the palace was destroyed seventeen years ago and new palace was built farther north right here. A new town sprung up around the new palace and that place is now called Castle Town."

He stared down at the map, mind locked to what this simple drawing represented and the people it held within its boundaries.

"This was all once Hyrule?"

"Yes...It was a rather big place once, wasn't it?"

He could tell that she was looking at him, but he couldn't tear his eyes from the pages. He started tracing the lines and curves of the landscapes with a finger. _Ordon village...the families of the Field...Faron's fairies...Goron mountains...Lake Hylia...Zora's waterways...Castle Town...Gerudo's Desert._

"Link? Is something wrong?"

He stopped tracing and looked up at Zelda, she looked tired and her eyes were full of worry. He stared at her for a few seconds, taking in her face and deciding what to say.

"I've never really looked at a map like this before, it's surprising to see how large it all is."

She stared back at him and then looked down at the pages he had just looked up from.

"I cried the first time I looked at this map."

She said while tracing a finger over the woods near the village.

"It scared me to think about how big the world was and how small I am in it."

He saw tears glistening in her eyes and lowered his head to try to catch her attention, but she put on a smile and looked up at him.

"But I know that I'm safe here now so I don't really think about such things anymore."

She was still sad, he could see it behind her smile, but he didn't know how to help. He wanted to help her, he wanted to help this village of people who cared for a stranger they had never seen before without a moment's hesitation, he wanted to help all the people who were trapped in this map. All strangers to each other because of what Gannondorf had done.

"What do you think about when you make that face? I've seen you make it before."

"How I could help, I suspect."

Her eyes widened and he had the feeling that she could read his thoughts through his eyes. She twisted around and blew out the lamp, then practically leapt into bed. He sat there in the semi-dark for a few seconds, completely mystified as to why she did that. He hadn't said or thought anything wrong, did he? He twisted his head around to look at the blanket covered lump that was her, but didn't move from his seated position.

"Zelda?"

"I'm s-sorry, L-Link. P-please, I- I can't-"

She reached out a hand from under the blanket and rubbed a few small circles on the smooth top of her glowing mushroom-thing. Its greenish color swirled to a light pink, to blue, to finally a soft purple and gentle music started drifting through the air from it. Link instantly recognized it as the song that Zelda was always singing when she was happy, and he looked back at the small bump that he knew was her head.

 _"Mmmm, hmm, mm. Du-du-duuu, hmm, mm. Buuuu-du-du, mm, mm, mm, hu-mmm."_

The melody repeated itself over and over as he stared at her, then he closed her book and laid it down on the small shelf carved into the bed's headrest.

"Goodnight, Link."

Came hesitantly from under the blanket, as if she was worried that he was angry. He smiled at her even though he knew that she couldn't see him and replied quietly as he lay down in his normal place.

"Goodnight, Zelda."

* * *

 **A big Thank You to everyone whose gotten this far in the story! Love ya!**

ZeldaPotter29 : ***munching on your cookies with happy tears in my eyes* I think you're stuck with me as a friend for life now, ZP. You reference Avatar tLAB in your sign-ins to reviews and quote me Lord of the Rings when I'm feeling down. You're just the best, buddy!** **I thank you and my other writing teachers for my improvement in the writing of this story, I couldn't do it half as well without ya! ;) Because you are a kind person who loves the art of good writing, that's why! :) I hope that Bo will come to his senses too, and if anyone can knock some sense into someone, it's Uli. XD How is school going for you now that you've had a bit of a break to distance yourself from the horror of it? XP**

LuisAM21 : **I'm about as close to abandoning this story as I am my own heart, neither of which are going to happen. ;) I'm happy that you like it so far, let me know how you think I'm doing on this if you can, alright? I'd love hearing from ya. :)**

FCL : *** hugs you back*** **I'm always happy to see you, buddy, no matter how long is was since I posted the chapter! *makes half of a heart with fingers and puts it to the screen* My friend, your reviews always come at exactly the right time for me. You gave me the idea because of you saying that you pictured Zelda looking at Link and Colin, I wasn't happy with what I had originally written for that part and the image you gave me was just what I wanted! And yeah, that little part you inspired was one of my favorites to write for this story, so Thanks! Always happy to help my fellow writers, buddy! ;) I hate hurting characters, but it's all going to urn out alright in the end...maybe. Mahahahah! Let me know the next time you need to be described and I'll think of something like that for ya! X) Yes, Link is nothing if not totally un-suspicious and writing him is such fun because of it! XD She just don't think he's dangerous to her, and no, it is never a good idea to break into the house of somebody who doesn't like you. I smell a cute little side story from that thought there, buddy. I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to tell him that to his face...XD I know, children are so fun to write, and...it might get that bad...brace yourself, buddy.**

Write a review and I'll thank you here too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


	8. 8 Child's Plea

**Hi, Everybody!**

 **Long time not post, I know.**

 **The last few months were really hard for me school-wise, but I won't go into it.** **I'm back now and I'll be working on writing my stories on here a lot now that the semester is over for me! SO, here's a chapter to reward your patience and tempt your story tooth!**

 **Welcome new readers too! A few of you have followed the story since I posted the last chapter so long ago and I love to hear from you about what you think of the story thus far, or you know, learn a bit more about you! I love getting to know my readers!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **I do not own Legend of Zelda, the pic, or "The voice" song...nor do I have the money to buy the rights to them.**

Constructive Criticism and Questions are always appreciated!

 **-X- different point of view**

* * *

She still didn't talk about it.

He could tell that it was haunting her, whatever had upset her when they had been looking at the map. It would skitter through her soft blue eyes whenever she looked at him, as if she was afraid. Should he already be watching her during her glance she would look away instantly, especially if their gazes met. Was it something he had done? ...or was she actually scared of him?

Maybe his curse was started to affect her and she feared whatever it was she had seen in his eyes. Or perhaps it wasn't just something in his eyes...maybe, the fear of his curse was saturating over into her pure magic and she was slowly becoming tainted by his presence. She was still so kind though. How she could be while living in fear? What kind of power did that take to face his curse and tolerate its continued bombardment by letting its source stay so close?

He didn't know, and this ability, this power of hers made him selfish in that he continually sought out her gentle company. He wanted her near him, having confidence in this power of hers to protect her from what he couldn't, but now there was a skittish distance in her manner and glances towards him. She was uncomfortable around him, especially when they were alone.

He cupped some water in his hands and splashed it over his face, opening his eyes to watch droplets slide down strands of his brown hair before falling back to the water below. The blue eyes that gazed up at him were hollow looking, tired and despondent.

He hadn't gone to her room for the last few nights now because he wasn't sure that he was welcome there anymore. It was Zelda's territory, her room, and he would not intrude again unless he had her permission.

Without her though, he barely slept.

His dreams filled with overlapping voices, a golden eyed Gerudo stalking him with hands outstretched to touch and grab him. Heavy chains weighing him down, smoke stinging his eyes while choking dust strangled out his voice, and a huge unknown man was always watching from afar with amusement on his face from behind a wall of flames.

Even sleeping at the spring didn't help, because while the man and fire were far away, a sobbing child's voice replaced the smoke and dust.

The sobbing was so real he had awoken in tears himself and had needed to check on every child in the village, just to be sure that it hadn't been any of them in such horrible pain and fear. It was none of them and that unsettled him even more. He knew that the child in pain was real, but there was nothing he could do if he couldn't find them.

He shook his head.

That had been two nights ago and he hadn't slept or returned to the spring since. He walked from the small creek he had found in the woods back to the village, focusing on leaves, trees, birds, and small animals as he went to keep his mind clear... controlled... unburdened.

The village seemed very quiet as he entered, he could hear an argument in Sera's store and the chatter of Ilia and Zelda, but no noisy children sounds anywhere. He paused and flicked his ears about, none at the lake's edge, none by Uli and Rusl's, none up the large tree. He felt his heart rate pick up, the hairs on the back of his neck slowly rose as echoes of the sobs from his dream played unbidden through his mind, his eyes flashed wide and fear sang with the sobs.

He bounded to the village center, the crossing point of all the paths, and turned his head in every direction, ears straining to catch any sign of the children. Most adults were in their homes at this time of day with Zelda and Ilia standing in the tall grass before Jaggle and Pergie's home, it was only when he turned his ears to the Goats Field did he hear children messing around with the animals and Fado.

"Link? Is something wrong?"

Uli called to him from the front deck of her home. He ignored her, listening carefully to the field as he counted the children off in his head.

"He's probably freaking out because Zelda was out of his sight for a few minutes. Hey, Link! She's just fine, so quit acting like something horrible has happened! You're weirding me out!"

Ilia's loud voice made it take longer, but he determined that all the children were truly out in the field with Fado. He relaxed, the tension and readiness for a fight released from his body and he allowed himself to tune back into what was happening around him.

Zelda was semi-scolding Ilia, which was a bit surprising as he had never heard her speak like that to the girl. It made him smile slightly, he knew it would only cause more disagreements between the two, of which Zelda would suffer far more from, but he couldn't deny he was glad whenever she didn't just give in to what the other girl wanted to hear.

Uli set down the basket of clean clothes she had been about to carry inside her home and quickly walking down the path towards him, worry plain on her face.

"Is everything already, Link?"

He turned his body to her and smiled disarmingly.

"Yes."

"Are you sure? You looked rather tense just now."

"Yes, fine."

She hesitantly stopped about a quarter way down the path, mentally debating with herself if she should push to know what his actions had been about or if she should leave him be. He took a step towards her and spread his arms out wide and low, still smiling.

"Everything's fine. I made a mistake, that's all."

"..If you're sure-"

"Yes."

"...Alright. If you need anything let me know, alright?"

He nodded and after another second of her internal conflict, Uli walked back up the path. He watched her go to be sure that she wouldn't turn back, and then turned to see what Zelda was doing with Ilia.

Each girl had a bow in hand and Ilia was stringing an arrow up it towards a painted red, yellow, and white target.

Ilia paused when she saw him walking over and made a frowny face before going back to focusing on the target. He moved to Zelda, watching Ilia carefully as he suddenly had the distinct feeling that she was fighting the urge to whirl around and make _him_ her target. He turned his eyes to Zelda in time to catch one of her strange looks and faintly smiled as their eyes met.

She hastily looked away and he couldn't help the sadness and guilt that seized him. She still couldn't look at him, not even after all the space he had given her the past few days. He felt a strange tightening in his throat as he stared at her downturned profile, metallic tasting pain settling heavily in him. Suddenly the only thing he wanted was to hear her speaking to him, eyes resting on him like they used to.

"I didn't know you could use a bow."

"You probably never asked her then, _Dearie_. Because Zelda is an amazing shot with one and she really enjoys it."

He turned his head cautiously to answer, knowing that he was too tired to give the girl the fight she wanted, but Ilia continued with a cutting smile to him that Zelda couldn't see.

"Not that you'd _ask_ what she enjoys, skulking around and watching every second is far more your style."

"Ilia!"

Zelda's face had gone pink, but she was staring straight at Ilia with a wounded look.

"What? It's true. Go ahead and ask him if he thinks it's true, he can't deny it."

He couldn't answer, no words came to him as he gazed levelly at Ilia. She smirked at his silence, taking it as confirmation that she was right.

"Link was only making a comment and he hasn't known me for long. How could he possibly know all the things about me that you think he should? Let alone a silly little hobby like this?"

Ilia rolled her eyes and turned her head back to the target.

"He'd get a lot farther if he asked, or you know, actually spoke with you."

"He just was though...perhaps if you-"

Ilia's arrow flew to the target and hit an outer ring, joining a handful of others that were grouped similarly on the target's face.

"Oh, Din's Fire! Again!?"

Zelda's eyes took a compassionate hue as she looked at her frustrated friend's back and angrily waving arms.

"I'm sure you'll get it next turn, Ilia. You really are getting better."

Ilia smiled at Zelda, a tinge of jealousy in her eyes that she tried to hide by quickly turning back around.

"Ha! You're sweet, Zel, but I doubt it. I'll never be as good as you."

There was a pause, then Zelda reached out.

"Ilia-"

"Oh, I'm out of arrows! Let me go pull mine out and you can get started with your round, Zel."

Ilia started walking to the target but turned back to face them after a few steps, pointing a finger at him.

"And you. You should go toddle off and find something useful to do, that's why my father and the others keep you around isn't it?"

A window opened from Jaggle and Pergie's house and Pergie stuck her head out as she emptied a loaded dust pan. She coughed loudly from the dust, then looked towards them with an almost dreamy smile.

"It's a day off from all the harvesting we've been doing lately and it's finally a bit of nicer weather. Let the boy be, Ilia, and all of you enjoy the day while you can."

Pergie pulled her head back in and closed the window, leaving the three teens staring in surprise at the wholly unexpected intervention from the quiet woman. Ilia snapped out of the daze first; waving dismissively at the window, she whipped around and stalked down to her waiting arrows. Left alone together, Zelda shifted the quiver at her hip, glancing up at him as she did before looking down again.

"How are your sword lessons with Rusl going?"

She asked quietly, staring at Ilia's back as the girl violently tugged her arrows free from the target. Link blinked in surprise at the question, but seized the chance she was giving him.

"Pretty well. I've never studied sword techniques, but Rusl says that I'm learning quickly."

"Why do you want to learn how to use a sword? You can fight very well without one and you don't have to fight at all here because the village is so well hidden."

"Swords are much more common than the weapons I know how to use, and hand-fighting isn't the best way to fight someone using a weapon."

She frowned as she watched Ilia, whether it was because of what he had said or because of something the girl was doing, he couldn't tell.

"But you don't need to fight anyone here, so why does it matter?"

He paused, the detected undercurrent in her voice halting his response. She sounded... afraid.

Hints of it exuded from her as she shifted nervously beside him. He cocked his head at her, silently urging her to look at him, to show that it wasn't him she was afraid of. She didn't turn her eyes to meet his, but she was not scared. That had to mean something. He couldn't be imagining things, afraid and scared were two different things.

He sighed, his brain aching from lack of sleep and looked away from her.

"I'm not...useful when injured. Avoiding injury keeps from making me too much of a burden or a danger."

"A burden? Link, you were very injured when you came here and we didn't mind caring for the injuries you got defending our location. You've been such a help to everyone since you recovered, what would make you think you're a burden?"

He turned his head, eyes drifting over the homes and items that these villagers didn't know they were lucky to have, especially compared to others he'd seen.

"This village is having a poor harvest and has a number of people and animals that need to be fed come winter. I eat a lot and my care was intensive. A resource burden. I either need to fill a place or leave before I do too much harm."

She was gazing at him now, silent, but he was a bit afraid to see what look she may be giving him.

"And a danger? I'm not saying you are right about being a burden, but you have not hurt anyone in the village...and I don't think you ever will. So why would you call yourself a danger to us?"

He couldn't look at her, but glanced out of the corner of his eyes to see her still watching him and he looked away again.

"The Curse makes people scared and they act in ways they don't normally. Nobody should get hurt because of that. I can fight these things, but most people can't and they shouldn't have to. People cannot be affected by my Curse if I'm not there."

Silence, only the soft rustle of the breeze through the tall grass near them and the murmurs of the steam flowing by.

"W-would you leave without telling me?"

She whispered, voice threatening tears. His eyes widened as he whipped his head around, confusion as to what action to take caused him to tense as he stared at her bowed head. Comfort could be taken the wrong way in her vulnerability and leaving would be worse.

Silence destroys.

He took a small step closer and bent until he was sure she could see his head was looking at the ground in front of her.

"No, I would tell you before I leave."

He glanced up at her and the effect of what he'd said was almost instantaneous. She blinked a few times and looked at him as if to be sure that she had heard right, then smiled with relief like the sun bursting from behind a cloud after a storm.

He blinked rapidly and looked back down. Had that been what was bothering her? That he'd leave? That couldn't be it.

"Hey, Zel, your target is ready! One of my arrow heads is loose, so I gotta go get something to fix it."

Link straightened as Ilia jogged up beside them and she put a somewhat possessive hand on Zelda's shoulder.

"Do you want to come with me so that you're not...you know?"

"I'm fine here, Ilia."

"Well...if you're sure.. -she glanced at Link then looked back to Zelda-...I'll try not to take too long. Be back in a few minutes!"

She took off towards her father's house and Zelda watched her go, face frowning slightly as she did.

She turned back to the target and pulled out an arrow. She gazed down the shaft to the painted rings and after a breath let it fly. It thudded into the white center circle and she lowered her bow with a smile.

"Not quite directly center yet, but I'm getting there."

"You are very good with a bow."

She looked at him and laughed softly. He could only assume that she was laughing at him, at whatever awe had been left on his face from watching her. Not that he minded, she could laugh at him if she wanted.

"I'm alright with one, but as you can see I don't always hit dead center."

She looked sideways at him.

"Have you ever used a bow before?"

He shook his head and she smiled.

"Do you want to try?"

He nodded and she held out the bow for him.

"Link, Zelda!"

Both turned to see Colin running towards them waving and they watched him run all the way to where they were. He came to a halt and smiled up at them, bouncing back and forth on his feet before settling his eyes on Link.

"Are you ready to make more coloring sticks now, Link?"

Link stared down at him with a blank face, desperately trying to remember when they had spoken about this. His exhausted mind came up empty on this seemingly promised activity and he continued to simply stare at Colin as he tried to figure out what to say. Hints of disappointment seeping into Colin's excited eyes as the seconds ticked by with no response from him and the bouncing slowed with it too.

Link couldn't take another person shying away from him, so he smiled down at the boy and fibbed.

"I remember, you want to do that now?"

The disappointment vanished and Colin beamed up at him while nodding enthusiastically. Link turned to Zelda to say something and was surprised by the warm look in her eyes, the small smile she was giving him. He completely forget whatever he had been going to say and just stared.

He felt Colin's small hand grab three of his fingers and the boy start pulling him off towards Uli and Rusl's home. He looked down at Colin's blonde head at the first tug and automatically started walking after him, realizing after a few steps that the little one was talking. Presumably to him and would probably want a response about whatever soon, meaning he needed to pay attention to at least some of the bubbly words drifting by him.

He just started understanding that it was a story about something that happened in Goats Field and that he should find it funny, when her head was there next to his. He didn't have time to look at her, only time to hear Zelda's whispered words before she retreated away.

"You can come back to my room again."

He whipped his head around to look at her, but she was bounding away in the opposite direction, so he let Colin drag him off to an afternoon filled with dyes, pastes, laughter, and little opportunity to think about anything else.

 **-X-**

She woke briefly when he snuck into her room long after everyone else was sound asleep, long enough to smile sleepily at him and see his grateful smile before slipping back into sleep. The next thing she knew her bed was bowing, pitching her back and forth like in a wild storm as something heavy moved around and above her on the bed.

Her eyes popped open and she would have screamed if a thick furry tail hadn't slammed into her mouth the instant she opened it. Frightened eyes focusing on the body the tail was attached to and there was a large wolf on her bed. She pushed the tail away just as her mushroom plant's pot fell from the windowsill to the floor with a rug muffled thud.

There was a large wolf on her bed, struggling to keep its balance on the unstable surface and to not step on her as it pawed at the latch to open her window, its panicked face perfectly illuminated by the already risen sun. She knew it was Link in his wolf form, but that didn't stop her heart pounding.

"L-Link? What are you-"

Realization hit her like a thunderclap: Link in his wolf form, in her room, with the sun already risen. He had to get out of here! There was no way she could explain away why there was a huge wolf in her room, Oh why had she slept so late?!

She slid out from under him, managing to get stepped on only once, and ran to her trapdoor. She opened it and was surprised to hear that there was no one below, but didn't stop to dwell on it.

"Link! You could-"

She turned just in time to see him scrambling out her open window, tail vanishing into the sun. She sprang up with a gasp and raced over to the window.

He was sliding and leaping his way down to the ground, heedless of the roof tiles he pulled out or of his own safety. He wasn't being very loud, but horror swept over her as she saw where Ilia and Bo were: pumpkin harvesting with most everyone else, which meant they'd see him as soon as he hit the ground! She spun around and raced to the still open trapdoor, practically falling through it in her haste to get down the ladder.

She dashed to the front door and flung it open just in time to hear screams of terror come from the largest pumpkin patch down near Sera's store. She sprinted out towards them, fear rising and heart pounding wildly as she saw that he was practically surrounded, completely blocked from the path that led to the Spirit spring and the deeper woods.

The children were frozen with fear by the storefront which was why the adults were stopping him from running that way, but she didn't know why they were surrounding him like this. Rusl had his sword while Bo, Sera, Jaggle, and Pergie were all armed with hoes and other close to hand tools, they were the ones circling in on Link.

Hanch and Uli had moved back towards the children: Hatch was trembling visibly and looked about ready to faint with fear while Uli had armed herself to protect the children and was positioned to defend them. Zelda couldn't see Ilia anywhere even though she knew that she had seen just seen the girl down here with the rest of them a minute ago.

As Zelda crossed the little bridge over the creek heading to the village center there was a change to the air, a stifling heaviness.

It was like breathing in smoke and it permeated the whole scene with a dark heat, swirling about and covering everything in a gossamer layer of fear and anger. They were shouting things at him, jabbing their weapons to keep him at a certain distance while they steadily closed in on him. He growled back loudly and snapped in response to weapons almost touching him, but didn't attack.

"Box it in, but don't get too close now. Bo and I should be able to kill it before it's able to hurt anyone."

"Wait, STOP!"

Zelda yelled as she fought her way through an invisible force within the smoke to get closer, pushing aside layer upon layer of wreathed emotions that the curse tried to settle in her.

"That's Link, not a wolf!"

"Get back, Zelda! It's a monster! Rusl and I will handle this!"

"That's not a monster! That's Link under the Sheikah curse, remember?!"

"What is she blabbering about!?"

"Get back, girl!"

"That's a monstrous Wolfos, not a person!"

The smoke stung her eyes and slowed her steps, but she couldn't stop the cool tingling that was rising just beneath her skin as she fought on.

"It's not a Wolfos, that's Link!"

"IT'S AFFECTING HER!"

Hatch screamed, pointing at Zelda and she could feel another change around her as some eyes flicked distrustingly to her. They didn't believe her. The fear and anger that the curse unleashed in them seemed to close their minds to her words. They didn't seem to remember anything about the curse Link was under or what it did. What it was making them do.

She rushed forward towards the ones closing the circle around Link.

"He won't hurt you! Let him go!"

"Hold her back!"

Barked Rusl and Sera turned from penning Link in to grab Zelda.

"Stop this, you foolish girl! It's a monster, not a pet!"

Her eyes had a red tint to them as she leered into Zelda's face and they reflected nothing as she spoke. Zelda tried to wrench herself out of Sera's grasp, but Sera held on, hands tightening far beyond what was needed to keep the girl in place. Where Sera was holding her now had cold pins and needles and Zelda glimpsed a faint gold glow from the back of her right hand.

"Chase him out into the woods if you don't want him here! But please don't hurt him!"

"Can't do that, it's too dangerous. It might come back."

Rusl's voice was deadly calm and focused, he and Bo were ready to attack. The sound of a bow string being pulled back had Zelda gasping in horror as she finally saw Ilia, the girl had climbed up the lookout mound and was about to shoot down at Link with her bow. From that distance and angle she couldn't miss, and Link had nowhere to dodge to anyway.

"ILIA, STOP!"

"Die, beast."

"NOO!"

Ilia loosed her shot just as Zelda screamed and flung out a hand in a desperate effort to stop her.

Looks of shock materialized on everyone's faces as they stared at the transparent light blue shield that had appeared just in time to catch the last bit of feathered shaft, arresting the arrow mid flight.

The shield vanished as soon as Zelda realized she was the one causing it, breaking the astonished stupor over everyone else.

"Stupid girl!"

Sera snapped and squeezed Zelda even harder. It felt like the woman was going to break her arm and she cried out. There was an explosive snarl from the center of the circle and Zelda saw Link leap at Bo, who hit him, but hit him so hard in his panic at the sudden attack that Link used the extra momentum to burst out from the circle in the slight hole left by Sera between Jaggle and Pergie.

He charged Sera and tore Zelda from her grasp by physically bowling the screaming Sera away from her, unintentionally knocking Zelda to the ground as well.

For a second, fear seized her.

He looked truly terrifying as she fell to the ground, fangs bared, blue eyes flashing with anger, and huge head set on a massively powerful body. Fear sent her body into action and she rolled away from him, heart beating in her ears as she looked back at him, her whole body trembling. He stopped for a split second as they made eye contact: surprise, then guilt, and a flash of raw pain flitted through the blue black of his eyes and then he looked away.

He dodged an arrow from Ilia and shot Zelda one last a guilty glance as tears started leaking from her eyes, then he raced past them down the path to the Spirit spring, disappearing around the corner just in time to avoid another of Ilia's arrows.

She stared at where he had been and felt her face grow wetter as more tears trickled down. She could hear Rusl organizing people into a hunting party, but she knew that they wouldn't find him. If Rusl hadn't noticed any signs of Link around when she had first met him, then he wouldn't be able to catch Link now.

She felt a hand grab her and it pulled her to her feet, dragging her along behind as she was hurried to Rusl and Uli's house.

Once she was inside, the door closed behind them and Zelda was seated at dining table chair, she knew who brought her here. Colin was sitting on the sofa crying and Uli was simultaneously trying to comfort him and check Zelda over for injuries. After confirming to herself that Zelda didn't have any bad injuries, she set about fully calming Colin and got him down to quiet hiccups within minutes.

Zelda watched silently, tears still slipping down her face as she numbly twisted her nightgown around her fingers. Colin sat in his mother's arms for another few minutes and only moved after Uli suggested that he go color for a bit in the bedroom. As soon as he was gone, she turned to Zelda.

"What were you thinking, making such a target of yourself and Sera like you did?"

"I was not making us a target, that wolf was Link. I wasn't about to just sit back and watch them kill him because of his curse."

"That wasn't a boy, Zelda, it was a monster."

Uli said firmly, her eyes sharp and hard like steel blades as she walked over to the fire to put the kettle on. Zelda could see a faint red tint in them that failed to reflect even firelight, and she felt her throat constrict painfully.

"You're lucky that it missed that second attack like it did, or you and Sera would have been killed."

"Link was not going to kill us, he was trying to get away before the others killed him."

"Zelda, that was a Wolfos. They don't have names and they always attack people when they get the chance, that's what evil creatures do."

"That was Link, the Sheikah boy who's been living with us for a few weeks now, not a Wolfos."

Zelda's voice came out rough and uneven as she spoke, sounding weak, desperate, and unconvincing even to her own ears. Uli gave her a long look then walked over and laid a hand on Zelda's brow.

"You're speaking very strangely, Zelda. Did you hit your head when you fell during its attack?"

Uli's red tinted eyes, looking down at her with such concern when they had been so unnaturally hard a second ago sent her over the edge.

One sob became two, and within seconds she was past the point of no return. Had she looked at him like that? With those red tinted eyes? She knew who he was, had known it was him and that he would never hurt her. And yet she _had_ been scared. She had looked at him and saw an animal going to hurt her before she had seen her friend, her trapped, being attacked friend, who had done nothing wrong.

She knew it was the curse, she knew it had been him all along, she knew that he was in control of himself...and she had still feared him. And worse, she had shown him her fear. Shown him that she had only seen an animal, when they both knew that she could see through the curse. How could she have done this to him? She was a coward, a despicable coward.

Uli rubbed her back and let her cry, although she seemed to only think that the tears were from shock.

 **-X-**

The sky was still the pale blue of pre-dawn when Link woke. Birds were warming up for the day and their songs mixed with the lingering chirps of late crickets, all eager to greet the promised light. He looked down as he pushed himself back from laying on his stomach and saw Hylian arms as he knelt there on the forest floor.

For three days he had been trapped in his wolf form and dared not risk going near the village. He stood and slowly started walking towards the only bridge that could take him there. He reached the closed gate and climbed over it, grunting slightly as he landed on the dirt path the other side. The lack of bird song by the spring lured him over to see why and he was greatly surprised to spot familiar long brown hair.

He knew it was about dawn now, but it was still very early for her to be out here.

"Zelda?"

She jumped and whipped around to stare at him, eyes wide.

"L-Link?"

She scrambled up from her seated position facing the spring and several things fell out of her lap onto the sand as she stood. She ignored them, continuing to stare at him while starting to twist her skirt in her hands slowly.

"I-I wasn't sure if you were c-coming back."

He slowly walked a little closer. She seemed a little scared even now and he wasn't sure if it was fear of him or of what she was going to say.

"S-since- since we kind of-"

Tears swam up in her eyes and she suddenly took a step closer, hands flying up to her chest.

"I'm so sorry, Link! I didn't mean to act like that!"

He stopped and blinked, surprised.

"I knew you weren't going to hurt me and I knew that it was you, but I got so scared that I forgot for a second. I knew that it wasn't real, but th-there was so much around me telling me to be scared, th-that I was."

She closed her eyes and lowered her head, unable to look at him anymore.

"I'm a horrible friend, hurting you like I did."

Her body hunched forward in a defeated slump, arms crossing over to hug onto herself in a defensive manner as she shook slightly from her sobs.

"I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore. Or if you h-hate me after everything I've done, I was horrible to you and if you never- "

"Stop."

His authoritative tone cut her off and her head snapped back up to look at him, wide blue eyes framed with dark lashes clumped together from her tears.

"I knew that'd happen if I was still in the village when I changed, what they'd do to me if they got a chance. They couldn't help it, that's what my curse does to people and I understand. You were the only one I was unsure of. You have some power that protects you from the effects of my curse and I've never met anyone else who could resist it. I'd hoped my curse would never affect you, but I guess that sometimes even your power doesn't fully stop it."

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at him and he glanced away.

"That's fine, no else has ever seen through it and I never thought that anyone would...thank you for that."

Zelda swallowed.

"Why are you talking like this? You- you sound like you're about to tell me something awful."

He slowly looked back to her, guilt and pain increasing as he took in her face.

"I have to leave, Zelda."

She looked stunned, eyes was wide as they could go and her face draining of all color except for the reddish rims from her tears. She staggered back a few steps, looking completely unaware of doing so though as she continued to stare at him.

"Wh- wh-wh wha-wha-t-t?"

He knew she heard him and part of him wanted to flee, to avoid seeing the confusion and pain in her face and eyes.

"N-no. You can't l-l-leave!"

Desperation filled her eyes and she took a step forwards.

"As soon as the red tints were gone from their eyes, I told them what happened. Link, they're so sorry and they want you to come back."

"Leaving has nothing to do with that, Zelda."

"THEN WHY?!"

She practically screamed at him.

"Why are you leaving?! Are you not happy here?"

"I have been happy, you saw."

"Then stay, please! I can help with handling the curse, I'll try harder and won't fall under it again! Please-"

"Don't beg me!"

She started at his harsh tone and he instantly lowered his eyes to the ground before her.

"Don't beg anyone. It's beneath you, they're beneath you, I'm beneath you."

She took a step closer and he raised his eyes to hers again.

"Look at where you live. A village with whole families and contented people rich beyond your knowledge. I'm leaving because nowhere I've seen is that lucky, men of the Plain are working on a wall and their families are left to do all their farming defenseless and alone. It's like that everywhere I've been and when I saw how big Hyrule was-"

"That stupid map..."

"Yes, it must be like that everywhere. All those lands and all those people, they can't do a thing about what's happening to them. I can't hide here anymore ignoring them."

"That look, why did you have to see it?..."

She muttered, looking away from him and down into the water she was standing in. She stayed that way for a few long moments and thinking she was dismissing him, he turned to leave.

"What do you plan on doing for those peoples?"

He blinked in surprise and turned his head back.

"Help them in any way I can."

"That's not a plan, it's an idea."

"I'll free them."

"That's not a plan either, that's an idea and it's a foolish one."

He stopped and fully turned to face her, his eyes defiantly meeting her saddened ones.

"How is it foolish to want to help them?"

"The desire to help isn't foolish, but you have no plans on how to actually do it. There are so many guards and creatures and people in motion, things in service of King Ganondorf that no one has been able to beat. How will you deal with those?!"

He didn't answer, couldn't in his surprise at her knowledge.

"You didn't know, did you? You haven't gotten that far yet... You want to go off and fight them without making a plan because you don't think you'll need one, or that one will just fall into place around you so that you can help them. Well, one won't! So you should just stop trying now while you're safe!"

Tears started flowing down her face again, but her pain filled blue eyes never left his.

"You think you're the only one who's tried to help those people? Do you know how many stories I've heard of people, warriors like you, who started rebellions against Ganondorf because of what he was doing to these lands! Do you want to know how they all ended?! Those people were killed! All of them! Every time!"

He started walking towards her, pulled to her by an invisible force, drawn in by her pain and need.

"This is different, Zelda. I don't want to overthrow Ganondorf, I just want to help them."

"Then you're even more of a fool that I thought! Don't you understand?! The only way to help them is to free them from Ganondorf's grasp, but nobody can help them because nobody can beat him!"

He entered the shallow water and slowly walked to her.

"Somebody can and someday, somebody will."

"Don't you get it?! Nobody can and everyone who could has tried! Sages, magic users, the Sheikah, famed warriors, the last Princess of Hyrule, my parents! Everyone- everyone has tried and when they've failed I've been left alone, and now you want to try! You can't win, you'll just be killed by him and his creatures like the rest of them!"

"Zelda..."

She clapped her hands over her face and he reached out to her, gently grabbing her wrists with the intent to pull her hands from her face when he saw the dark bruises on her arm. He released her right wrist and brushed his fingertips against the blue-black markings on her forearm, throat tightening.

She parted her fingers to peer out at him and he looked at her for a few long seconds, guilt and shame eating at him.

"This was my fault. No one ever defended me from others under my curse before so I didn't know they would hurt you, they never hurt each other."

"It's fine, they barely hurt."

He looked back to the bruises, but she slid her arm down out of his grasp and rested her right hand on the back of his left. She opened her mouth to speak, but her birthmark flared up golden and pale blue light started shining up from the Spring's water.

"H-hello? Is someone there? Can anyone hear me?!"

Link gasped as the sobbing child's voice from his dream drifted up to them from the glowing water's surface and Zelda gasped as well.

"Is there anyone there?! Please! Can anyone hear me?!"

"We hear you."

Link answered, both Hylians now staring down at the pool's surface even though there was nothing to see but glowing water. Non-reflective glowing water, they couldn't see themselves in it.

"L-L-Link? Sh-Sheik?! How- could it re- really be you? I don't know how this could be but please, I need your help! Ganondorf's spell has broken into the Forest Temple and I can't hold out against him for much longer! If he takes the Temple, then the budding Great Deku Tree will be next and the forest could be destroyed! Please you've got to help me!"

The child's voice in the Spring started fading along with the pool's light and it was gone a second later, gone before they could answer her.

* * *

 **A big Thank You to everyone who had read this far into the story!**

ZeldaPotter29 : **Hey there, buddy! Of course I worry about my buddies problems, high school or not. ;p Hopefully your grades get better this semester because of all your hard work! Do I thank you enough for your editing help? Probably not, so Thanks so much for your help! I tried to be mindful of tenses this chapter and did lots of editing of it. I'm sure you'll still find mistakes, but hopefully not too many! I always look forward to talking with you, and yeah, some butt kicking is going to happen soon! Till next time, buddy! 3**

LuisAM21 : **I'm glad that there was no pressure to get the next chapter up, otherwise I'd really bad about making you and everyone else wait this long for it! *guilty face* I'm happy that you liked that apple part, I loved writing it! THEIR SO CUTE!** **And I'm glad that my drama has been good thus far, because there's gonna be a lot more of it in the story!**

 **Love both your profile pics** LuisAM21 **and** ZP29 **BTW!**

Write a review and I'll thank you here too!

 **Best wishes till next time!**


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